ABSTRACT

So far we have proposed content externalism (a) as a way out of the Twin Earth contradiction and (b) as the beginning of a way of avoiding the Demonic Dilemma. We have also seen (c) that content is a phenomenological notion, and (d) that phenomenologically (interpretationally) adequate accounts of conscious subjects are not delivered by physicalistic accounts of them. This last point is a step on the way to the epistemological Real Distinction, but only a small one. It is probably just as plausible that physical accounts of substances do not by themselves deliver all the chemical knowledge to be had of them: seeing something as a package of chemicals is not automatically delivered if one merely sees it as a system of physical particles. New concepts are required. Clearly, more needs to be said about content and the interpretational if an interesting thesis is to emerge.