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Full Idea
Our traditional introspective notions - of meaning, idea, concept, essence, all undisciplined and undefined - afford a hopelessly flabby and unmanageable foundation for a theory of the world. Control is gained by focusing on words.
Gist of Idea
For a good theory of the world, we must focus on our flabby foundational vocabulary
Source
Willard Quine (Has Philosophy Lost Contact with People? [1979], p.192)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Theories and Things' [Harvard 1981], p.192
A Reaction
A very nice statement of the aim of modern language-centred philosophy, though the task offered appears to be that of an under-labourer, when the real target, even according to Quine, is supposed to be a 'theory of the world'.
| 1649 | Socrates opened philosophy to all, but Plato confined moral enquiry to a tiny elite [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 1749 | If all laws were abolished, philosophers would still live as they do now [Aristippus elder] |
| 559 | Even people who go astray in their opinions have contributed something useful [Aristotle] |
| 15624 | Free thinking has no presuppositions [Hegel] |
| 19227 | Philosophy is a search for real truth [Peirce] |
| 14862 | Philosophy is more valuable than much of science, because of its beauty [Nietzsche] |
| 8226 | A well-posed problem is a problem solved [Bergson, by Deleuze/Guattari] |
| 2944 | If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it [Wittgenstein] |
| 9763 | For a good theory of the world, we must focus on our flabby foundational vocabulary [Quine] |
| 9198 | It is no longer possible to be a sage, but we can practice the exercise of wisdom [Hadot] |
| 9408 | Science studies phenomena, but only metaphysics tells us what exists [Mumford] |