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8462 | A hallucination can, like an ague, be identified with its host; the ontology is physical, the idiom mental [Quine] |
Full Idea: A physical ontology has a place for states of mind. An inspiration or a hallucination can, like the fit of ague, be identified with its host for the duration. It leaves our mentalistic idioms fairly intact, but reconciles them with a physical ontology. | |
From: Willard Quine (The Scope and Language of Science [1954], §VI) | |
A reaction: Quine is employing the same strategy that he uses for substances and properties (Idea 8461): take the predication as basic, rather than reifying the thing being predicated. The ague analogy suggests that Quine is an incipient functionalist. |