Pursuit Of Truth {ReadingNotes}

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

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

• Willard van Orman Quine, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Willard Van Orman Quine home page by Douglas Boynton Quine
• Quine "The Quasher" in Philosophical Powers: Philosophy Action Figures by Ian Vandewalker
• Wikipedia:Willard Van Orman Quine
• Quine’s Philosophy of Science by Robert Sinclair, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• W. V. Quine in Key Figures in Naturalistic Epistemology of the Naturalistic Epistemology article, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Willard Van Orman Quine short bio on PhilosophyProfessor.com

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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Categories

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