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Departmental Boundaries within the Corporate Body of Theory: Quine on the Holistic Foundations of Logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

David M. Godden
Affiliation:
McMaster University

Abstract

This article argues that Quine's holistic and naturalized semantics provides an inadequate account of the foundations of logical expressions and misrepresents the internal structure of theories. By considering a Quinean model of theoretical revision, I identify the status and foundation holism provides to the propositions of logic. I contend that a central tenet of Quinean holism—the Revisability Doctrine—cannot be held consistently, and that the inconsistencies surrounding it mark a series of pervasive errors within naturalized holism. In response, I propose that semantic theories must reflect the different linguistic functions of different types of expressions and the specific relationships that individual concepts within a theory or language have to one another.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2006

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