Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Locke and the nature of language
- 2 Frege on Sense and reference
- 3 Russell on definite descriptions
- 4 Kripke on proper names
- 5 Natural-kind terms
- 6 Quine on de re and de dicto modality
- 7 Reference and propositional attitudes
- 8 The semantics of propositional attitudes
- 9 Davidson on truth and meaning
- 10 Quine and Davidson on translation and interpretation
- 11 Quine on the indeterminacy of translation
- 12 Austin on speech acts
- 13 Grice on meaning
- 14 Kripke on the rule-following paradox
- 15 Wittgenstein on the Augustinian picture
- Glossary
- Works cited
- Index
6 - Quine on de re and de dicto modality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Locke and the nature of language
- 2 Frege on Sense and reference
- 3 Russell on definite descriptions
- 4 Kripke on proper names
- 5 Natural-kind terms
- 6 Quine on de re and de dicto modality
- 7 Reference and propositional attitudes
- 8 The semantics of propositional attitudes
- 9 Davidson on truth and meaning
- 10 Quine and Davidson on translation and interpretation
- 11 Quine on the indeterminacy of translation
- 12 Austin on speech acts
- 13 Grice on meaning
- 14 Kripke on the rule-following paradox
- 15 Wittgenstein on the Augustinian picture
- Glossary
- Works cited
- Index
Summary
Key text
W. V. O. Quine, ‘Three Grades of Modal Involvement’, reprinted in Quine's The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays, 2nd edn (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976).
Introduction
In the last two chapters we've looked at the works at the centre of a revolution in our thinking about reference and necessity. So far I've represented the revolution as being against views to be found in Frege, Russell, and Locke. But there was a more recent target than any of these: the great American philosopher and logician, Willard Van Orman Quine. Quine dominated the English-speaking philosophical world in the middle years of the twentieth century, with an enormous influence on both doctrine and style, in the United States in particular.
Quine followed Russell in his treatment of definite descriptions and proper names. Indeed, he went even further, proposing that all singular terms be replaced by, or reconstrued as, definite descriptions. He was also an ardent advocate of what he and his followers called extensionalism. Recall the core of Frege's conception of meaning, the part to which the notion of Sense is added. According to this, what matters about the meaning of various types of expression can be summarized as follows:
For sentences – whether they are true or false;
For singular terms – which objects they refer to;
For predicates – what difference they make to the truth and falsity of sentences, given any particular choice of names in place of the variables.
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- Information
- An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language , pp. 113 - 133Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006