“It is within science itself, and not in some prior philosophy, that reality is to be identified and described.” PhilosophyReality Book:Theories and Things Source: Theories and Things
“The strategy of semantic ascent is that it carries the discussion into a domain where both parties are better agreed on the objects (viz., words) and on the main terms connecting them. Words, or their inscriptions, unlike points, miles, classes and the rest, are tangible objects of the size so popular in the marketplace, where men of unlike conceptual schemes communicate at their best. The strategy is one of ascending to a common part of two fundamentally disparate conceptual schemes, the better to discuss the disparate foundations. No wonder it helps in philosophy.” MenTwoPhilosophyHelpingLanguageTermPartyCommonWonderClassObjectsPhilosophicalFoundationStrategySizeCommunicateMilesDiscussionCarrieSchemesConnectingDomainMarketplaceTangibleAscentInscriptionsAscending Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
“My position is a naturalistic one; I see philosophy not as an a priori propaedeutic or groundwork for science, but as continuous with science. I see philosophy and science as in the same boat--a boat which, to revert to Neurath's figure as I so often do, we can rebuild only at sea while staying afloat in it. There is no external vantage point, no first philosophy.” FirstsPhilosophySeaFiguresPositionPhilosophicalBoatStayingNaturalismVantage PointGroundwork Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
“The three main medieval points of view regarding universals are designated by historians as realism, conceptualism, and nominalism. Essentially these same three doctrines reappear in twentieth-century surveys of the philosophy of mathematics under the new names logicism, intuitionism, and formalism.” PhilosophyRealityThreeNamesViewsCenturyMathematicsPoint Of ViewDoctrineHistorianRealismTwentieth CenturyMedievalSurveys Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
“It is one of the consolations of philosophy that the benefit of showing how to dispense with a concept does not hinge on dispensing with it.” DoePhilosophyBenefitsConceptsConsolationHinges Book:Word and Object Source: Word and Object
