Word and object

309 Pages·2013·1.75 MB·English

by  Willard van Orman Quine & Patricia Smith Churchland & Dagfinn Follesdal

Word and Object

Word and Object
new edition
Willard Van Orman Quine
foreword by Patricia Smith Churchland
preface to the new edition by Dagfinn F ø llesdal
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 1960, 2013 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
First edition published 1960 by the MIT Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales
promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or
write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge,
MA 02142.

This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited,
Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Quine, W. V. (Willard Van Orman)
Word and object / Willard Van Orman Quine ; foreword by Patricia Smith Churchland ;
preface to the new edition by Dagfinn Fø llesdal. — New ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-51831-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Semantics (Philosophy). 2. Logic, Symbolic and mathematical. 3. Language and
languages — Philosophy. I. Title.
B840.Q5 2013
121 ′ .68 — dc23
2012027957

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Rudolf Carnap
Teacher and Friend

Wie Schiffer sind wir, die ihr Schiff auf offener See umbauen mü ssen, ohne es jemals
in einem Dock zerlegen und aus besten Bestandteilen neu errichten zu k ö nnen.
— Otto Neurath
Ontology recapitulates philology.
— James Grier Miller

Contents
Foreword by Patricia Smith Churchland xi
Preface to the New Edition by Dagfinn F ø llesdal xv
Preface to the First Edition xxix
1 Language and Truth 1
1 Beginning with Ordinary Things 1
2 The Objective Pull; or, E pluribus unum 5
3 The Interanimation of Sentences 8
4 Ways of Learning Words 12
5 Evidence 15
6 Posits and Truth 19
2 Translation and Meaning 23
7 First Steps of Radical Translation 23
8 Stimulation and Stimulus Meaning 27
9 Occasion Sentences. Intrusive Information 32
10 Observation Sentences 36
11 Intrasubjective Synonymy of Occasion Sentences 41
12 Synonymy of Terms 46
13 Translating Logical Connectives 52
14 Synonymous and Analytic Sentences 55
15 Analytical Hypotheses 61
16 On Failure to Perceive the Indeterminacy 66
3 The Ontogenesis of Reference 73
17 Words and Qualities 73
18 Phonetic Norms 77
19 Divided Reference 82
20 Predication 87
21 Demonstratives. Attributives 91
22 Relative Terms. Four Phases of Reference 96
23 Relative Clauses. Indefi nite Singular Terms 100
24 Identity 104
25 Abstract Terms 108