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    Since meaning is partly constituted by mind-external fact... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Belief content and sentence meaning must be defined jointly in terms of a principle of charity — whatever assignment maximizes the truth of an agent's beliefs and utterances

    Since meaning is partly constituted by mind-external factors independent of belief truth-values, charity cannot serve as the joint definitional ground Davidson requires.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Externalism about meaning is empirically well-supported: water/Twin-water thought experiments show content depends on environment.
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    • 2.Charity principle assumes belief-states determine meaning, but external factors like causal history are independent of what agents believe.
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    • 3.If meaning partly depends on mind-external factors, interpretive charity alone cannot fully constitute meaning without external specification.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Charity and externalism are compatible: charity constrains interpretation *given* external facts are already fixed by causal history.
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    • 2.The claim conflates meaning-determination with meaning-constitution: external factors may determine but not serve as the *ground* Davidson needs.
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    • 3.Davidson's project requires joint principles; charity works with externalism, not against it, by ruling out internally identical misinterpretations.
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    Connections

    2 topics

    Truth & Knowledge1 linkedPhilosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    Belief content and sentence meaning must be defined jointly in terms of a princi...Charity and externalism are compatible: charity constrains interpretation *given...Charity principle assumes belief-states determine meaning, but external factors ...Davidson's project requires joint principles; charity works with externalism, no...
    +3 moreShow less
    Externalism about meaning is empirically well-supported: water/Twin-water though...If meaning partly depends on mind-external factors, interpretive charity alone c...The claim conflates meaning-determination with meaning-constitution: external fa...

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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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