Abstract
Quine is famous (infamous?) for defending the radical doctrine known as the Indeterminacy of Translation. The thesis states that, beyond small empirically grounded fragments, there is “no fact of the matter” as to the correct translation of one language into another. (Graduate students who have been so unfortunate as to have had their foreign language proficiency exams graded by Prof. Quine may question the depth of his commitment to this principle, but let us eschew ad hominems.) Quine has offered at least three different, though related arguments for the Indeterminacy Thesis; I shall focus in this essay on the argument from “radical translation,” offered in Chapter Two of Word and Object. The objection I’m going to make is a familiar one, but with a twist.
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Antony, L. (2000). Naturalizing Radical Translation. In: Orenstein, A., Kotatko, P. (eds) Knowledge, Language and Logic: Questions for Quine. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 210. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3933-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3933-5_11
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