Full Idea
The more absurd or exotic the beliefs imputed to a people, the more suspicious we are entitled to be of the translations.
Gist of Idea
We should be suspicious of a translation which implies that a people have very strange beliefs
Source
Willard Quine (Word and Object [1960], §15)
Book Reference
Quine,Willard: 'Word and Object' [MIT 1969], p.69
A Reaction
Quine is famous for his relativist and indeterminate account of translation, but he gradually works his way towards the common sense which Davidson later brought out into the open.