Full Idea
When a convention is incapable of being communicated until after its adoption, its role is not clear.
Gist of Idea
If a convention cannot be communicated until after its adoption, what is its role?
Source
Willard Quine (Truth by Convention [1935], p.106)
Book Reference
Quine,Willard: 'Ways of Paradox and other essays' [Harvard 1976], p.106
A Reaction
Quine is discussing the basis of logic, but the point applies to morality - that if there is said to be a convention at work, the concepts of morality must already exist to get the conventional framework off the ground. What is it that comes first?