Theories and ThingsHere are the most recent writings, some of them unpublished, of the preeminent philosopher of our time. Philosophical reflections on language are brought to bear upon metaphysical and epistemological questions such as these: What does it mean to assume objects, concrete and abstract? How do such assumptions serve science? What is the empirical content of a scientific theory? Further essays deal with meaning, moral values, analytical philosophy and its history, metaphor, the nature of mathematics; several are concerned with logic; and there are essays on individual philosophers. The volume concludes with some general reflections on the contemporary scene and two playful pieces on the Times Atlas and H. L. Mencken. W. V. Quine is always, whatever his subject, an elegant writer, witty, precise, and forceful. Admirers of his earlier books will welcome this new volume. |
Contents
Things and Their Place in Theories | 1 |
Empirical Content | 24 |
What Price Bivalence? | 31 |
On the Very Idea of a Third Dogma | 38 |
Use and Its Place in Meaning | 43 |
On the Nature of Moral Values | 55 |
Five Milestones of Empiricism | 67 |
Russells Ontological Development | 73 |
Lewis Carrolls Logic | 134 |
Kurt Gödel | 143 |
Success and Limits of Mathematization | 148 |
On the Limits of Decision | 156 |
Predicates Terms and Classes | 164 |
Responses | 173 |
Postscript on Metaphor | 187 |
Has Philosophy Lost Contact with People? | 190 |
On Austins Method | 86 |
Smarts Philosophy and Scientific Realism | 92 |
Goodmans Ways of Worldmaking | 96 |
On the Individuation of Attributes | 100 |
Intensions Revisited | 113 |
Worlds Away | 124 |
Grades of Discriminability | 129 |
Paradoxes of Plenty | 194 |
The Times Atlas | 199 |
Menckens American Language | 203 |
209 | |
215 | |