Willard Van Orman Quine, often referred to as the twentieth century's "Father of American Philosophy", was the most influential analytic philosopher in the United States during the latter part of the century. Celebrated for his arguments against logical empiricism, his prolific contributions span many areas of philosophy, covering mathematical logic, philosophy of language, ontology and metaphysics, and epistemology, and continue to have significant resonance within the discipline today.
A Companion to W.V.O. Quine brings together original contributions by a team of leading figures within contemporary philosophy. The essays provide an indepth exposition and analysis of Quine's influence across the discipline's many subfields; they assess his numerous contributions, highlighting the breadth of his work, and revealing his continued relevance within the philosophical community. Covering the areas of method, language, logic, mathematics, science, and Quine's relation to other philosophers, the volume will be of significance to advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as professional philosophers seeking an overview and a critical discussion of Quine's work.
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction: Life and Work 1
Gilbert Harman and Ernie Lepore
Part I Method 15
1 Quine and Epistemology 17
Thomas Kelly
2 Quine and the A Priori 38
Lars Bergström
3 Quine and Pragmatism 54
Peter Godfrey-Smith
4 Quine's Relationship with Analytic Philosophy 69
Gary Kemp
5 Quine on Paraphrase and Regimentation 89
Adam Sennet and Tyrus Fisher
6 Quine's Naturalism 114
Alan Weir
7 Quine's Naturalism Revisited 148
Peter Hylton
Part II Language 163
8 Inscrutability Scrutinized 165
Alex Orenstein
9 Quine on the Analytic/Synthetic Distinction 181
Gillian Russell
10 Quine, Analyticity, and Transcendence 203
Ernie Lepore
11 Indeterminacy, Relativity, and Behaviorism 219
Gilbert Harman
12 Indeterminacy of Translation 236
Peter Pagin
13 Developments in Quine's Behaviorism 263
Dagfinn Fųllesdal
Part III Logic, Mathematics, Science 279
14 Quine's Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics 281
John P. Burgess
15 Bolzano, Quine, and Logical Truth 296
Sandra Lapointe
16 Quine on Observationality 313
Olav Gjelsvik
17 Observation 333
Bredo C. Johnsen
18 Quine on Evidence 350
Robert Sinclair
19 Quine on Reference and Quantification 373
Michael Glanzberg
Part IV Relation to Other Philosophers 401
20 Quine and Russell 403
Gary Ostertag
21 The Place of Quine in Analytic Philosophy 432
Scott Soames
22 Quine's Naturalistic Explication of Carnap's Logic of Science 465
Gary Ebbs
23 Quine and Chomsky on the Ins and Outs of Language 483
Barry C. Smith
24 Quine's Conception of Explication and Why It Isn't Carnap's 508
Martin Gustafsson
25 The Relation between Quine and Davidson 526
Hans-Johann Glock
26 Quine and the Revival of Metaphysics 552
Gideon Rosen
Name Index 571
Subject Index 576
Gilbert Harman is James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. He has written broadly about W.V.O. Quines philosophy, and much of his research shows Quines influence, including Thought (1973), Change in View (1986) and Reasoning, Meaning, and Mind (1999). He is also editor of Semantics of Natural Language (with Donald Davidson, 1970) and The Logic of Grammar (1975).
Ernie Lepore is an American philosopher and cognitive scientist. He is currently Acting Director of the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science, and a professor at Rutgers University. He is the co-author with Herman Cappelen of Insensitive Semantics (Wiley-Blackwell, 2004) and Language Turned on Itself (2007). He is editor of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language (with Barry C. Smith, 2006) and general editor of the Wiley-Blackwell series Philosophers and Their Critics.
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