Davidson, Donald

"Understanding requires grasping the causal history embedded in language use."

"Rationality is not a matter of internal consistency but of appropriate response to the world."

"The objective world plays an essential role in determining what our thoughts mean."

"We are thrown into a world we did not choose, yet our knowledge depends on it."

"Semantic content cannot be reduced to physical description without losing essential features."

"The distinction between knowledge and belief requires proper causal connection to facts."

"Our agency is enabled, not constrained, by our dependence on causal relations."

"Interpretation of behavior requires appeal to reasons and causes working together."

"The mind is not a private theater but an open window on the world."

"We understand each other through shared patterns of response to the world."

"Truth conditions for thoughts are determined by what makes them true in the world."

"The assumption that mind is transparent to itself obscures its real nature."

"Events can be described in mental or physical terms without being reduced."

"Our beliefs form a rational unity through our connection to shared reality."

"Thought requires both internal processes and external relations of appropriate kind."

"The web of belief is anchored not in foundation but in ongoing transaction with world."

"To know something is to stand in the right causal relation to a true fact."

"Mental states get their character from their role in our engagement with environment."

"We are always already embedded in practices of interpretation and understanding."

"Concepts are tools developed through our history of interaction with the world."

"The content of thought is public, not private, though thinking is internal."

"Understanding a language is grasping patterns of successful communication."

"Our sense of coherence reflects our adaptation to a real world we inhabit."

"Meaning emerges from the intersection of mind, language, and world."

"The clearest truths are those grounded in our most stable causal relations."

"Interpretation always involves attribution of rationality to the interpreted."

"We create meaning not ex nihilo but through engagement with a meaningful world."

"Knowledge is secured through our reliable access to the objective world."

"The unity of experience reflects the unity of the world we experience."

"Thought content cannot be determined by internal states alone, however complex."