Externalismo y autoridad de la primera persona: McKinsey vs. Davidson

Abstract

In recent decades it has been considered that a sound formulation of self-knowledge should be consistent with the thesis of externalism. Michael McKinsey has strongly emphasized that the conjunction of both views is inconsistent. In this paper I argue that the objections presented by McKinsey do not importantly affect the Davidsonian account of first-person authority in conjunction with externalism; besides, I point out that if there couldn’t be a à la Davidson reconstruction of first-person authority from McKinsey’s point of view, it would be in virtue of methodological, semantic, epistemic and ontological diff erences between both thinkers, and not because this reconstruction is in itself incompatible with externalism.