Description
Book SynopsisQuine’s efforts to get beyond the confusion begin by rejecting the very idea of binding together word and thing, rejecting the focus on the isolated word. For him, observation sentences and theoretical sentences are the alpha and omega of the scientific enterprise.
Trade ReviewPursuit of Truth is, like all Quine’s works, most engagingly written. He strives for concision of the most telegraphic sort, and achieves it in a way that gives the special pleasure evoked by a conspicuous skill. -- Anthony Quinton * The Times *
With his usual wit and aplomb, Quine offers here his latest—though one hopes and expects not his last—word on a variety of intersecting topics that have figured centrally in his life’s work… The book offers not only a lucid and compelling summary of Quine’s views, but also provides invaluable clarifications, reformulations, and substantive updating… Capable of serving as a concise introduction to Quine’s views, this book will also prove invaluable in more sophisticated efforts to understand and appraise his accomplishments. * Choice *
Table of ContentsPART 1: EVIDENCE 1. Stimulation and prediction 2. Observation sentences 3. Theory-laden? 4. Observation categoricals 5. Test and refutation 6. Holism 7. Empirical content 8. Norms and aims PART 2: REFERENCE 9. Bodies 10. Values of variables 11. Utility of reification 12. Indifference of ontology 13. Ontology defused PART 3: MEANING 14. The field linguist's entering wedge 15. Stimulation again 16. To each his own 17. Translation resumed 18. Indeterminacy of translation 19. Syntax 20. Indeterminacy of reference 21. Whither meanings? 22. Domestic meaning 23. Lexicography PART 4: INTENSION 24. Perception and observation sentences 25. Perception extended 26. Perception of things 27. Belief and perception 28. Propositional attitudes 29. Anomalous monism 30. Modalities 31. A mentalistic heritage PART 5: TRUTH 32. Vehicles of truth 33. Truth as disquotation 34. Paradox 35. Tarski's construction 36. Paradox skirted 37. Interlocked hierarchies 38. Excluded middle 39. Truth versus warranted belief 40. Truth in mathematics 41. Equivalent theories 42. Irresoluble rivalry 43. Two indeterminacies References Credits Index
