FOUR QUINE’S INCONSISTENCIES

• Authors: Gustavo Picazo
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper the author argues that the idiosyncrasy of linguistic competence fosters semantic conceptions in which meanings are taken for granted, such as the one that Quine calls ‘uncritical semantics’ or ‘the myth of the museum’. This is due to the degree of automaticity in the use of language which is needed for fluent conversation. Indeed, fluent conversation requires that speakers instinctively associate each word or sentence with its meaning (or linguistic use), and instinctively resort to the conceptual repertoire of our language, without calling into question that the meaning of a particular word, or the conceptual repertoire of our language, could have been different than they are. This habit of taking meanings for granted, inherent to our linguistic ability, sometimes interferes with our semantic research, hampering it. In order to illustrate this problem, the author pinpoints four places in Quine’s work where, despite his acknowledged analytical rigour, and despite his congenital aversion to the habit of taking meanings for granted, he himself appears to slip into this habit, inadvertently.

Keywords

EN

LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE; MEANING THEORY; MYTH OF THE MUSEUM; QUINE

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute of Philosophy of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
• Journal: Organon F. medzinárodný časopis pre analytickú filozofiu
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 163 - 177

Contributors

author

Gustavo Picazo

• Department of Philosophy, University of Murcia Edificio Luis Vives, Campus de Espinardo, Punto 12, Murcia 30100, Spain