Externalism and Armchair Knowledge*
نویسنده
چکیده
1. Kylie’s Puzzle On summer afternoons in Canberra, the baking sun reflects off Lake Burley Griffin, and the water shimmers. Up behind the university, in the botanical gardens, a cascading stream of water helps to maintain the humidity of the rainforest gully. These are just a couple of Kylie’s thoughts on the subject of water, her water thoughts. Amongst Kylie’s many other thoughts that involve the concept of water are these: that there is water in the lake, that trees die without water, that water is a liquid and, of course, that water is wet. When Kylie thinks consciously, in a way that occupies her attention, she is able to know what it is that she is thinking.3 This is true for thoughts about water, as for any other thoughts. So when Kylie thinks consciously that water is wet, she knows, even as she thinks, that she is thinking that water is wet. Kylie is a student of philosophy. She has studied many arguments that purport to show that, in order to think that water shimmers, or cascades, or is wet, in order to think
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