Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-25T05:34:57.160Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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
Get access

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.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • 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
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • 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
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • 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
×