 The phenomenon of semantic deference is closely related to what Putnam memorably termed “the linguistic division of labor.” Putnam’s idea was that as long as there are experts on what certain words refer to, we do not all need to have that specialized knowledge; we can rely on the knowledge of the experts. In Burge’s treatment, however, the phenomenon is not merely linguistic: it is not just that we defer to the experts on the meaning of the word ‘arthritis’; we also defer to the experts on the nature of the disease arthritis. Thus, for Burge, the phenomenon affects not only what we mean by the words we use, but also the very contents of our thoughts.