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Single Idea 6312
[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / b. Indeterminate translation
]
Full Idea
There is no evident criterion whereby to strip extraneous effects away and leave just the meaning of 'Gavagai' properly so-called - whatever meaning properly so-called may be.
Clarification
'Gavagai' is an imagined native word which somehow refers to a passing rabbit
Gist of Idea
We can never precisely pin down how to translate the native word 'Gavagai'
Source
Willard Quine (Word and Object [1960], §09)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Word and Object' [MIT 1969], p.38
A Reaction
Quine's famous assertion that translation is ultimately 'indeterminate'. Huge doubts about meaning and language and truth follow from his claim. Personally I think it is rubbish. People become fluent in very foreign languages, and don't have breakdowns.
The
19 ideas
with the same theme
[full translation may be a logical impossibility]:
6318
|
The doctrine of indeterminacy of translation seems implied by the later Wittgenstein
[Wittgenstein, by Quine]
|
18963
|
Indeterminacy translating 'rabbit' depends on translating individuation terms
[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]
|
3988
|
Indeterminacy of translation also implies indeterminacy in interpreting people's mental states
[Dennett on Quine]
|
6311
|
The firmer the links between sentences and stimuli, the less translations can diverge
[Quine]
|
6312
|
We can never precisely pin down how to translate the native word 'Gavagai'
[Quine]
|
6313
|
Stimulus synonymy of 'Gavagai' and 'Rabbit' does not even guarantee they are coextensive
[Quine]
|
6317
|
Dispositions to speech behaviour, and actual speech, are never enough to fix any one translation
[Quine]
|
6270
|
The correct translation is the one that explains the speaker's behaviour
[Putnam]
|
6283
|
Language maps the world in many ways (because it maps onto other languages in many ways)
[Putnam]
|
14206
|
There are infinitely many interpretations of a sentence which can all seem to be 'correct'
[Putnam]
|
6399
|
Criteria of translation give us the identity of conceptual schemes
[Davidson]
|
6179
|
Should we assume translation to define truth, or the other way around?
[Blackburn on Davidson]
|
3495
|
Shared Background makes translation possible, though variation makes it hard
[Searle]
|
3083
|
Many predicates totally resist translation, so a universal underlying structure to languages is unlikely
[Harman]
|
3698
|
Indeterminacy of translation is actually indeterminacy of meaning and belief
[Bonjour]
|
2763
|
There is an indeterminacy in juggling apparent meanings against probable beliefs
[Dancy,J]
|
6341
|
Right translation is a mapping of languages which preserves basic patterns of usage
[Horwich]
|