Knowing One's Own Mind. Externalism and Priviliged Self Knowledge

Knowing One's Own Mind: Externalism and Privileged Self-Knowledge was written by Sven Bernecker and published by MIT Press in 2000. It emerged during a pivotal era in contemporary analytic philosophy, specifically addressing the tension between externalist accounts of mental content—which argue that the meanings of our thoughts depend on our environment—and the traditional intuition that we possess special, authoritative access to our own minds.

Bernecker’s work is grounded in the broader debates initiated by philosophers like Hilary Putnam and Tyler Burge. The book seeks to reconcile these seemingly contradictory positions by offering a nuanced examination of how externalism impacts our understanding of introspection, memory, and cognitive agency. It was received by the academic community as a rigorous contribution to the philosophy of mind, serving as a primary text for scholars grappling with the mechanics of self-knowledge.