Pursuit of truth by Willard Van Orman Quine - ISBN 0674739515 - Harvard University Press 1992

book
http://books.google.com/books?id=SiLXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA

Motivation

Classical philosopher on a topic (naturalistic epistemology and philosophy of science) that I consider fundamental. Also discovered recently Bryan Edgar Magee interviews on YouTube including few on and with Quine.

Pre-reading model

Draw a schema (using PmGraphViz or another solution) of the situation of the area in the studied domain before having read the book.

Reading

opening with a quote of Plato in Ancient Greek "Sozein ta phainomena"

  • 1 Evidence
    • "the ultimate objective is so to choose the revision as to maximize future success in prediction: future coverage of true observation categoricals." (p15)
    • "A sentence's claim to scientific status rests on what it contributes to a theory whose checkpoints are in prediction." (p20)
  • 2 Reference
    • (p23)
  • 3 Meaning
    • (p37)
  • 4 Intention
    • (p61)
  • 5 Truth
    • "What the indeterminacy of translation shows is that the notion of propositions as sentence meanings is untenable." (p102)
    • "What the empirical under-determination of global science shows is that there are various defensible ways of conceiving the world." (p102)

See also

Overall remarks and questions

  • this? that?

Synthesis

So in the end, it was about X and was based on Y.

Critics

Point A, B and C are debatable because of e, f and j.

Vocabulary

(:new_vocabulary_start:) new_word (:new_vocabulary_end:)

Post-reading model

Draw a schema (using PmGraphViz or another solution) of the situation of the area in the studied domain after having read the book. Link it to the pre-reading model and align the two to help easy comparison.

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