Definition of "externalism" [ex•ter•nal•ism]

• Excessive concern with outer circumstances or appearances. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But if externalism can be defined broadly enough to encompass Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Kripke, and Burge, still the comparison is strained when we take account of the different sources of ˜externalism™ in the phenomenologists."
• "This does not yet rule out externalism, which is compatible with this result if any of a number of different claims are true."
• "He denounced in unmeasured terms the externalism of Pharisaic observance of the Law, and insisted on its spirit being observed as well as the letter."