Quine and Pragmatism

This paper discusses critically W. V Quine's relation to the tradition of pragmatism. Even though Quine is often regarded as a pragmatist, it is far from clear what his commitment to pragmatism actually amounts to. It is argued that while there are pragmatist elements in Quine's position,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 2006-06, Vol.42 (3), p.309-346
Main Authors: Koskinen, Heikki J., Pihlström, Sami
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
American philosophy
Criticism and interpretation
Empiricism
Historical studies (History of philosophy. History of ideas)
Metaphysics
Naturalism
Normativity
Ontology
Philosophers
Philosophical object
Philosophical realism
Philosophy
Pragmatics
Pragmatism
Quine, Willard Van Orman
Rorty, Richard
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Summary:This paper discusses critically W. V Quine's relation to the tradition of pragmatism. Even though Quine is often regarded as a pragmatist, it is far from clear what his commitment to pragmatism actually amounts to. It is argued that while there are pragmatist elements in Quine's position, this is not sufficient to classify him as a pragmatist in any strong histori-cal sense; indeed, he was not even clear himself what it means to be a pragmatist. It is also shown that neither Quine s philosophy nor pragmatism are as anti-metaphysical as has sometimes been thought. In order to enrich the picture of Quine s place in the pragmatist tradition, some neopragmatist criticisms of his ideas (e.g., by Hilary Putnam and Richard Rorty) are also discussed.
ISSN:0009-1774
1558-9587
1558-9587
DOI:10.1353/csp.2006.0030