 It is sometimes objected to holism that, intuitively, both Shakespeare and contemporary physicians believe that blood is red, while on the holist view it is hard to see how their beliefs could even be similar, given that they have so many different surrounding beliefs about both blood and redness. Although in principle a holist could respond to this objection by describing what sort of differences in surrounding belief create only minor divergences and what differences create major ones, there have been no influential attempts at such a project. It may be possible to address the Shakespeare case by suggesting that the content of both Shakespeare’s and the contemporary physician’s belief is partly determined externalistically by the actual nature of blood and the actual nature of redness, despite the different conceptualizations over time (see §3.3 below). Since neither blood nor redness have changed much since Shakespeare’s day, Shakespeare’s and the contemporary physician’s belief may be similar—though, of course, if one holds them to be exactly the same, one cannot be a holist.