Davidson, Self-Knowledge, and Skepticism

In this paper, I aim to evaluate whether Davidson’s triangular externalism is or is not affected by one of the most famous objections raised against externalist theories on mental content: the Reductio Argument. According to these critics, combining externalism with certain characteristics of self-knowledge leads to overly strong and highly counterintuitive anti-skeptical consequences, and thus to the refutation of externalism. First of all, I argue that triangular externalism is not affected by the objection raised by the Reductio Argument; secondly, I outline some consequences for the anti-skeptical argument that Davidson hopes to derive from his own theory. My conclusion is that triangular externalism is not an authentic answer to the skeptic about the external world.