ABSTRACT
Akeel Bilgrami insists that the attribution of concepts must be constrained both by a principle of unity and of locality, where the notion of locality is itself understood by reference to particular actions as a focus for explanation and, thereby, for concept attribution. The holistic character of subjectivity – including the holistic character of mental states and content – has the important consequence that the unity of subjectivity cannot derive from some more primordial unity that lies within the overall structure. If the structure of subjectivity cannot be understood apart from the structure of agency, then neither can be severed from the structure of the world in which the subject is necessarily located. The idea that mental states are ordered in relation to action can, in most cases, be seen as an inevitable consequence of the idea that mental states are holistically determined.
