Quine : a guide for the perplexed / Gary Kemp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kemp, Gary, 1960 October 15-

Series:

Guides for the perplexed

The guides for the perplexed series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quine, W. V. (Willard Van Orman).

Quine, W. V.

Physical Description:

x, 179 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Continuum International Pub. Group, 2006.

Summary:

Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging - or, indeed, downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to fathom, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.

Willard Van Orman Quine is one of the most influential analytic philosophers of the latter half of the twentieth century. His contribution to the study of logic, metaphysics, the theory of knowledge and the philosophy of mind and language can hardly be underestimated. No serious student of modern analytic philosophy can afford to ignore Quine's work. Yet there is no doubt that it presents a considerable challenge. Not only are Quine's writings often difficult; even today they remain radical, antithetical to some of philosophy's longstanding yet persisting ambitions and to some of the new directions taken by recent analytical philosophy.

Quine: A Guide for the Perplexed is the ideal book for anyone who needs to meet that challenge. The book offers clear explication and analysis of Quine's writings and ideas in all those areas of philosophy to which he contributed (except technical matters in logic). Quine's work is set in its intellectual context, illuminating his connections to Russell, Carnap and logical positivism. Detailed attention is paid to Word and Object, Quine's seminal text, and to his important theories on the nature of truth, knowledge and reality. Above all, this text presents an account of Quine's philosophy as a unified whole, identifying and exploring the themes and approaches common to his seemingly disparate concerns, and showing this to be the key to understanding fully the work of this major modern thinker.

Contents:

1 Philosophy as Quine found it 1

Quine as philosopher and anti-philosopher 1

Empiricism and the claims of science 3

Logical empiricism 5

Linguistic frameworks, analyticity and tolerance 8

2 Convention, analyticity and holism 13

'Truth by Convention': preliminaries 13

'Truth by Convention': Quine's objections 16

The first dogma of 'Two Dogmas': analyticity 19

The second dogma: reductionism 23

Further points on definition, postulation and the limits of syntax 29

3 The indeterminacy of translation 35

From criticism to construction 35

Approaching the natives 38

Stimulus meaning and observation sentences 40

Synonymy and analyticity considered anew 46

Analytical hypotheses 47

Indeterminacy of translation 52

Reflecting on indeterminacy 56

4 Naturalized epistemology and the roots of reference 68

Reciprocal containment 68

Evidence and the connection of language to the world 73

Focusing on the individual 76

The psychology of learning 79

Language: observation sentences to theory 85

5 Truth, ontology and the language of science 95

The ontological question 95

The actuary of science 99

'To be is to be the value of a bound variable' 105

Posits, reality and reduction 110

Ontological relativity 115

Truth 119

6 Extenionality and abstract ontology 128

Causality and dispositions 128

'No entity without identity': abstract objects, good and bad 132

Propositional attitudes 137

Modality 145

7 Science, philosophy and common sense 151

The rejection of first philosophy 151

Quine and analytic philosophy 155

Lingering questions 164.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 174-176) and index.

ISBN:

0826484867

0826484875

OCLC:

62878370