Abstract

It is widely held that individuals have some sort of special access to their own minds. In recent philosophy of mind, the view that thought content depends on extra-mental environmental factors has become the dominant view. Many philosophers have argued and are convinced that this externalism about thought content is incompatible with the thesis that individuals have special access to their own minds. ;In this thesis I refute the case for the inconsistency of privileged access and externalism and offer a positive case for their consistency. I also argue that privileged access and externalism can be combined to generate a powerful anti-skeptical argument similar to Hilary Putnam's famous anti-skeptical argument