Meaning, Basic Self-Knowledge, and Mind: Essays on Tyler Burge

Anti-individualist and externalist perspectives on meaning and mental states have long been considered incompatible with some kinds of self-knowledge. Yet philosopher Tyler Burge's recent works have attempted to connect the paradigms between anti-individualism and Cartesian theory of knowledge, and externalism and Fregean theory of sense. This volume presents leading philosopher's criticisms of Burge's recent, and already widely accepted, position in the theory of meaning, mind, and language. It expounds on the advantages and disadvantages of externalism on meaning, anti-individualism as a theory of mental states, and the problem of basic self-knowledge in epistemology and theory of knowledge. Specifically, the apparent disadvantages of the externalist and anti-individualist views are reconsidered. Together with Burge's replies, this volume offers a major contribution to contemporary philosophy.