Internalists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who advocate or adhere to the view that knowledge or justification depends primarily on factors internal to a person's cognitive perspective ; members of a philosophical group emphasizing that access to one's own mental states is crucial for justification ; proponents of the idea that epistemic justification must be based on information contained within an individual’s mind or awareness
2. Persons supporting the epistemological position that justification arises from internal reasons accessible through reflection ; followers who stress that the basis for knowledge lies inside the individual's mental framework ; theorists focused on internal access to reasons as essential for cognitive justification
3. Thinkers who argue that the conditions for rational belief and knowledge depend on internal mental content ; people who promote the concept that one’s justificatory factors must be internally available ; advocates who claim that justification cannot rely on external, inaccessible sources beyond one’s own awareness

Etymology: The word is a plain formation: "internal" plus the suffix "-ist", which marks a person who holds to or practises a doctrine. Its suffix has a long pedigree. The ending passed into English through Middle English, having been borrowed from Old French "-iste", which in turn came from Latin "-ista". Behind that lies a Greek agent-suffix, "-istēs", which named people who did or followed something, such as a musician or a practitioner of a craft. Because "internal" itself reached English from Latin "internus", meaning "inward", the combined word carries a fairly literal sense: someone who insists that the grounds for belief lie inside the mind. In philosophy the term sharpens into a specific contrast with externalists, who hold that some justification can come from facts outside a person's awareness, such as the reliability of a perception-forming process.