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Full Idea
We could know the necessary and sufficient stimulatory conditions of every possible act of utterance, in a foreign language, and still not know how to determine what objects the speakers of that language believe in.
Gist of Idea
You could know the complete behavioural conditions for a foreign language, and still not know their beliefs
Source
Willard Quine (Speaking of Objects [1960], pt.III,p.11)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.11
A Reaction
I just don't believe this, because the same scepticism then creeps into discussions of native speakers of a single language, and all communcation is blighted - which is nonsense.
| 5747 | "No entity without identity" - our ontology must contain items with settled identity conditions [Quine, by Melia] |
| 13387 | Our conceptual scheme becomes more powerful when we posit abstract objects [Quine] |
| 7925 | There is no proper identity concept for properties, and it is hard to distinguish one from two [Quine] |
| 8277 | I prefer 'no object without identity' to Quine's 'no entity without identity' [Lowe on Quine] |
| 1630 | We can only see an alien language in terms of our own thought structures (e.g. physical/abstract) [Quine] |
| 1631 | You could know the complete behavioural conditions for a foreign language, and still not know their beliefs [Quine] |
| 1632 | Translation of our remote past or language could be as problematic as alien languages [Quine] |