internalismn.
/ɪnˈtəːnl̩ɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ᵻnˈtərn(ə)lˌɪz(ə)m/ 1. Excessive regard or preference for what is internal or spiritual, often to the exclusion or neglect of external or practical considerations. Cf. externalism n. 1. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1844 Present 15 Jan. 250 The soul can never be thus satisfied to the exclusion of the mind; internalism cannot mislead.
1862 N. Amer. Rev. July 181 The internalism of humanity in India has given over the Hindoo mind to fantasy and sensibility.
1864 E. L. Fotheringham & A. L. Fotheringham Philos. as Absolute Sci. I. 39 The idealism and internalism of Plato may be seen in his affinity for the theories of the Ionian dynamicists.
1908 Harvard Theol. Rev. 1 312 Modernism..stands in the mean between the externalism of the Mediaevalist and the internalism of the Protestant.
1970 Mahfil 5 iv. 34 The radiance and warmth of the West and the otherworldiness and internalism of the East popularized a neo-romantic perspective.
2. Philosophy.
a. Any of various theories which assert that certain relations are internal (see internal relation n. at internal adj. and n. Compounds) or that certain apparently disparate things are internally or intrinsically related. Also: any of various theories according to which certain practices or ways of life can only be understood or legitimately assessed on the basis of their own intrinsic characteristics rather than on the basis of external factors.
ΚΠ
1911 Philos. Rev. 20 280 Are relations internal or external to their terms?.. For convenience we may call the two views ‘externalism’ and ‘internalism’.
1932 Jrnl. Philos. 29 461 The prime objection of logicians to internalism, that if all terms are in all their relations internally related, then no terms can be identified at all, and logical thought..vanishes.
1972 Rev. Metaphysics 25 579 The author..considers what can be said for internalism, viz., the view that no one can accept a moral judgment unless he has a favorable or an unfavorable attitude towards that thing which the judgment is about.
1983 Relig. Stud. 19 100 Phillips agrees that 'externalism'—i.e. the attempt to give religion some justification beyond itself—is misconceived, but warns us not to go to the other extreme of ‘internalism’—i.e. supposing religion to be entirely independent in respect of intelligibility and justification of all other ‘forms of life’.
2010 Philos. Stud. 150 222 According to internalism, reasons entail motives: necessarily S has reason to x only if x-ing would serve S's goals.
2010 S. Shapin Sci. Revol. 173 Self-conscious internalism developed partly as a response from scholars who saw the causal invocation of external ‘social factors’ as a form of denigration or even as the ‘vulgar Marxist’ arm of the communist threat to the Free World.
b. In epistemology: any theory according to which all the factors which justify a person's belief or knowledge must be cognitively accessible to that person's conscious mind.
ΚΠ
1980 A. Goldman in Midwest Stud. Philos. 5 27 Internalism takes its inspiration from a perspective that has dominated epistemology since the time of Descartes.
1999 Erkenntnis 50 296 There are many versions of internalism in epistemology.
2014 J. Nagel Knowledge v. 68 Internalism doesn't necessarily require the subject..to have access to evidence that guarantees the truth of what is known: milder forms of internalism can simply insist that the subject should have access to supporting evidence.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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