Single Idea 1619

[catalogued under 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 7. Meaning Holism / b. Language holism]

Full Idea

This essay offered a verificationist account of language without the logical positivist error of supposing that verification could be reduced to a mere sequence of sense-experiences.

Clarification

Verificationism in language says meaning is entirely a matter of connections with actual experience

Gist of Idea

There is an attempt to give a verificationist account of meaning, without the error of reducing everything to sensations

Source

comment on Willard Quine (On What There Is [1948]) by Daniel C. Dennett - works

Book Reference

Quine,Willard: 'From a Logical Point of View' [Harper and Row 1963], p.1


A Reaction

This is because of Quine's holistic view of theory, so that sentences are not tested individually, where sense-data might be needed as support, but as whole teams which need to be simple, coherent etc.