The epistemological aspect of self- knowledge in the light of psychological externalism

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of reconciling self-knowledge based on first-person authority with externalism. We will argue that the externalist standpoint, and particularly that of psychological externalism, is the correct one; not only because it advances the thesis about the external determinants of mental content on which the justification of the content depends, but primarily because it offers a positive argument for solving the problem of self-knowledge by stating that the external environment not only determines the content of the subject’s mental states, but is also necessary for self-knowledge.