How to Be an Atomist Without Being an Externalist

Abstract Atomism and externalism tend to be allied in accounts of both word meaning and concepts. The paper argues that they should be separated as regards word meanings. There is a clear and significant way of being an atomist that is non-committal about externalism. In the realm of word meaning, this brand of atomism simply separates the relation of a word to a root concept, which can be atomic, from what, if anything, putting that concept to use allows a speaker to talk about. More centrally, arguments from polysemy and copredication pose a severe challenge to externalism but are consistent with the brand of atomism advertised.