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Single Idea 19488

[from 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism' by Willard Quine, in 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 5. Empiricism Critique ]

Full Idea

Quine's second dogma of empiricism is the reductionism that finds every statement to be linkable by fixed correspondence rules to a determinate range of confirming observations.

Gist of Idea

The second dogma is linking every statement to some determinate observations

Source

report of Willard Quine (Two Dogmas of Empiricism [1953]) by Stephen Yablo - Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake? V

Book Reference

Yablo,Stephen: 'Things: Philosophical Papers vol. 2' [OUP 2010], p.123


A Reaction

Quine's response to this is to embrace holism about theories, instead of precise connections with Humean impressions. I'm thinking that Lewis disagrees with Quine, when his Humean supervenience rests on a 'mosaic' of small qualities.