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Chapter 10 - Turning Point

Quine’s Indeterminacy of Translation at Middle Age

from Part III - Carnap and Quine on Logic, Language, and Translation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2023

Sean Morris
Affiliation:
Metropolitan State University of Denver
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Summary

The arguments for the indeterminacy of Translation in Quine’s Word and Object (1960) form a turning point in his thinking. Quine may have started out as a disciple of Carnap’s, but in the 1940s and 1950s the most salient feature of Quine’s work is a deep asymmetry. Such extensional notions as reference and ontology are central and fully intelligible. Intensional notions such as analyticity and synonymy are not intelligible, and epistemic concerns are, in his published writing, not central. The arguments for the indeterminacy of translation undermine the asymmetry and initiate changes to the role of ontology and reference, to the status of simplicity, to Quine’s understanding of analyticity and synonymy, and to the character and centrality of his epistemology, ultimately including even a return to a two-tier epistemology. The changes do not amount to a wholesale rejection of earlier views, but exist uneasily alongside those previous views. In the aggregate, however, the changes were significant and brought Quine’s position back much closer to Carnap’s.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Turning Point
  • Edited by Sean Morris, Metropolitan State University of Denver
  • Book: The Philosophical Project of Carnap and Quine
  • Online publication: 18 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108664202.014
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  • Turning Point
  • Edited by Sean Morris, Metropolitan State University of Denver
  • Book: The Philosophical Project of Carnap and Quine
  • Online publication: 18 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108664202.014
Available formats
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  • Turning Point
  • Edited by Sean Morris, Metropolitan State University of Denver
  • Book: The Philosophical Project of Carnap and Quine
  • Online publication: 18 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108664202.014
Available formats
×