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Title: Word and Object by Willard Van Orman Quine ISBN: 0-262-67001-1 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 1964 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An Essential Read for Philosophy of Language Enthusiasts
Comment: In this incomparable and engaging book Quine takes up many of the questions he raised in "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" and in his other early papers. In Word and Object, he levels an attack against the traditional notion of meaning that is accepted by so many, because it is understood by so few. Though the position defended here is alomost completely wrong, it is wrong for interesting reasons and, along with Quine's other works, establishes a position regarding matters semantic that, from his ultra-empiricist positivist perspective is nearly inevitable. If you don't find his position at least a little compelling, then your heart is made of stone.
Rating: 5
Summary: Pinnacle of Philosophical Clarity
Comment: This book is a true classic, both in content and presentation; Quine's pithy style, sometimes ironic, is singular in analytic philosophy. This book describes the generation of reference and logical categories out of the confluence of "sense-data" and "stimulus synonymy," answering with consistency many perennial questions in ontology and epistemology in the process. Chapter two (the infamous "indeterminacy of translation" thesis) is a fascinating linguistic reformulation of the "other minds" problem, demonstrating that one must conclude a type of "ontological relativity" amongst speakers. Along with Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations," Ryle's The Concept of Mind," and Sellars' "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind," Quine's magnum opus completes the quadrivium of mid-20th century analytic philosophy which together rang the death-knell of Cartesianism.
Rating: 5
Summary: A CLASSIC OF "ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY"
Comment: This is one of the great books of 20th-century philosophy, with page after page of brilliant arguments. Although Quine had an understated wit and a gracefully economic style, this is not an easy book. I would not tackle it without some training in philosophy, logic, or linguistics. Particularly useful would be some understanding of logical positivism, which Quine is reacting against.
The book's motivating question is how a word (or words) can refer to an object or be used to pick out an object. This might seem to be a narrow topic, but it leads Quine to discuss a large number of epistemological, logical, and metaphysical issues. Quine's conclusions in these areas were so novel and profound that decades later philosophers are still digesting them.
Was Quine right about everything? Surely not, but like all great philosophers, he made us look at the old issues in new ways and made us aware of problems which we hadn't known had existed. For this we can be profoundly grateful.
Willard Van Ormen Quine died 25 December 2000.
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Title: Naming and Necessity by Saul Kripke ISBN: 0674598466 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1982 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Ontological Relativity by Willard Quine ISBN: 0231083572 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1977 List Price(USD): $24.50 |
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Title: From a Logical Point of View: Nine Logico-Philosophical Essays by Willard V. Quine ISBN: 0674323513 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1980 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation by Donald Davidson ISBN: 0199246297 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Ways of Paradox, and Other Essays by Willard Van Orman Quine ISBN: 0674948378 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1976 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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