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 Reference
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'.