ABSTRACT
This chapter traces Donald Davidson's perceptual externalism back to its origins in his writings about radical interpretation. It explains that there is no significant break between the perceptual externalism connected with radical interpretation and that connected with triangulation. Davidson's perceptual externalism is, and always has been, historical and holistic. It is historical in that "the contents of our thoughts and sayings are partly determined by the history of causal interactions with the environment". The chapter also explains that Davidson is right in maintaining that all one needs to do is speak with others, that is, be understood by others as meaning what one does by one's words. The triangulation argument supports Davidson's anti-conventionalism. Finally, the chapter describes that the triangulation argument provides us with a way to address the skeptical paradox about rule-following developed by Kripke's Wittgenstein that is different both from Kripke's skeptical solution and from the kind of straight solution sought by the skeptic.
