Holism of mental content Semantic holism

these sorts of counterintuitive consequences of semantic holism affect form of holism, identified but, in fact, distinct semantic holism: holism of mental content. thesis meaning of particular propositional attitude (thought, desire, belief) acquires content virtue of role plays within web connects other propositional attitudes of individual. since there tight relationship between content of mental state m , sentence p, expresses , makes publicly communicable, tendency in recent discussion consider term content apply indifferently both linguistic expressions , mental states, regardless of extremely controversial question of category (the mental or linguistic) has priority on other , which, instead, possesses derived meaning. so, seem semantic holism ties philosopher s hands. making impossible explain language learning , provide unique , consistent description of meanings of linguistic expressions, blocks off possibility of formulating theory of meaning; and, making impossible individuate exact contents of propositional attitude—given necessity of considering potentially infinite , continuously evolving set of mental states—it blocks off possibility of formulating theory of mind.