Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:31:36.205Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Departmental Boundaries within the Corporate Body of Theory: Quine on the Holistic Foundations of Logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

David M. Godden
David M. Godden
Affiliation:
McMaster University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article argues that Quine's holistic and naturalized semantics provides an inadequate account of the foundations of logical expressions and misrepresents the internal structure of theories. By considering a Quinean model of theoretical revision, I identify the status and foundation holism provides to the propositions of logic. I contend that a central tenet of Quinean holism—the Revisability Doctrine—cannot be held consistently, and that the inconsistencies surrounding it mark a series of pervasive errors within naturalized holism. In response, I propose that semantic theories must reflect the different linguistic functions of different types of expressions and the specific relationships that individual concepts within a theory or language have to one another.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , Summer 2006 , pp. 505 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Creath, Richard 1990 “Introduction.” In Dear Carnap, Dear Van: The Quine-Carnap Correspondence and Related Work. Edited by Creath, Richard. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–43.Google Scholar
Grice, H. P., and Strawson, P. F. 1956 “In Defense of a Dogma.” Philosophical Review, 65: 141–58.Google Scholar
Laudan, Larry 1998 “Demystifying Underdetermination.” In Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues. Edited by Curd, Martin and Cover, J. A.. New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 320–53.Google Scholar
Montomery, H., and Routley, R. 1966 “Contingency and Non-Contingency Bases for Normal Modal Logics.” Logique et Analyse, 9: 318–28.Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary 1983a “There Is at Least One a priori Truth.” In Realism and Reason, Philosophical Papers. Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 98–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Hilary 1983b “Analyticity and Apriority.” In Realism and Reason, Philosophical Papers. Vol. 3. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 115–38.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman 1960 Word and Object. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman 1961 “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” In From a Logical Point of View. 2nd ed.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 20–46.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman 1969 “Epistemology Naturalized.” In OntologicalRelativity and Other Essays. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 69–90.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman 1988 “Quine Speaks His Mind: [E. Pivcevic's] Interview with Willard Van Orman Quine.” Cogito, 2: 1–5.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman 1991 “Two Dogmas in Retrospect.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 21: 265–74.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman 1992 Pursuit of Truth. Rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman 1995a From Stimulus to Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman 1995b “Naturalism, Or, Living within One's Means.” Dialectica, 49: 251–61.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman, and Ullian, J. S. 1978 The Web of Belief. 2nd ed.New York: Random House.Google Scholar