more from Willard Quine

Single Idea 8470

[catalogued under 19. Language / B. Reference / 1. Reference theories]

Full Idea

For Quine, we cannot sensibly ask which is the real number five, the Frege-Russell set or the Von Neumann one. There is no arithmetical or empirical way of deciding between the two. Reference is inscrutable.

Gist of Idea

Reference is inscrutable, because we cannot choose between theories of numbers

Source

report of Willard Quine (Ontological Relativity [1968]) by Alex Orenstein - W.V. Quine Ch.3

Book Reference

Orenstein,Alex: 'W.V. Quine' [Princeton 2002], p.68


A Reaction

To generalise from a problem of reference in the highly abstract world of arithmetic, and say that all reference is inscrutable, strikes me as implausible.