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Quote by Willard Van Orman Quine

“Some have said that the thesis [of indeterminacy] is a consequence of my behaviorism. Some have said that it is a reductio ad absurdum of my behaviorism. I disagree with this second point, but I agree with the first. I hold further that the behaviorism approach is mandatory. In psychology one may or may not be a behaviorist, but in linguistics one has no choice.”

Quote by Willard Van Orman Quine

Book:Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist: And Other Essays

Work

Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist: And Other Essays

This book delves into the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of extensionalism, a concept that examines the relationship between meaning and the external world. The essays within offer insights into how extensionalism is applied across different disciplines, providing a comprehensive look at its principles and implications. more

Author

Willard Van Orman Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine was an American philosopher known for his work in logic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of language. He is considered one of the leading analytic philosophers of the 20th century. more

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“English general and singular terms, identity, quantification, and the whole bag of ontological tricks may be correlated with elements of the native language in any of various mutually incompatible ways, each compatible with all possible linguistic data, and none preferable to another save as favored by a rationalization of the native language that is simple and natural to us.”

Way May Whole Language Term Natural Simple Identity Elements Various Tricks Data Native Bags Compatible Native Language

Book:Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine

Source: Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine

“Linguistically, and hence conceptually, the things in sharpest focus are the things that are public enough to be talked of publicly, common and conspicuous enough to be talked of often, and near enough to sense to be quickly identified and learned by name; it is to these that words apply first and foremost.”

Firsts Enough Names Language Common Focus

Book:Word and Object

Source: Word and Object

“Language is a social art.”

Art Language Social Intentionality

Book:Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist: And Other Essays

Source: Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist: And Other Essays

“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.”

“Different persons growing up in the same language are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants. The anatomical details of twigs and branches will fulfill the elephantine form differently from bush to bush, but the overall outward results are alike.”

Persons Different Form Language Results Growing Up Growing Shapes Details Branches Elephants Identical Twigs

Book:Word and Object

Source: Word and Object

“Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.”

Way Truth Science Principles Truth Is Unique Method Definitions Doomed Pragmatic Scientific Method Pragmatism

Book:Word and Object

Source: Word and Object

“Unlike Descartes, we own and use our beliefs of the moment, even in the midst of philosophizing, until by what is vaguely called scientific method we change them here and there for the better. Within our own total evolving doctrine, we can judge truth as earnestly and absolutely as can be, subject to correction, but that goes without saying.”

Moments Use Truth Science Belief Subjects Judging Method Doctrine Evolve Midst Here And There Corrections Scientific Method

Book:Word and Object

Source: Word and Object

“We must not leap to the fatalistic conclusion that we are stuck with the conceptual scheme that we grew up in. We can change it, bit by bit, plank by plank, though meanwhile there is nothing to carry us along but the evolving conceptual scheme itself. The philosopher's task was well compared by Neurath to that of a mariner who must rebuild his ship on the open sea.”

Wells Bits Sea Grew Grew Up Tasks Philosophical Philosopher Stuck Ships Conclusion Evolve Leap Schemes Mariners

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.”

Firsts Philosophy Sea Figures Position Philosophical Boat Staying Naturalism Vantage Point Groundwork

Author:Willard Van Orman Quine

“The line that I am urging as today's conventional wisdom is not a denial of consciousness. It is often called, with more reason, arepudiation of mind. It is indeed a repudiation of mind as a second substance, over and above body. It can be described less harshly as an identification of mind with some of the faculties, states, and activities of the body. Mental states and events are a special subclass of the states and events of the human or animal body.”

Mind Humans States Reason Body Today Lines Animal Consciousness Special Events Activity Denial Substance Materialism Faculty Conventional Identification Conventional Wisdom

Author:Willard Van Orman Quine