Status Updates From Word and Object, new editio...

“The interlocked conceptual scheme of physical objects, identity, and divided reference is part of the ship which, in Neurath’s figure, we cannot remodel save as we stay afloat in it […] we are not in a position to jettison any part of it, except as we have substitution devices ready to hand” (123-124). Language is not merely referential but an integral medium of beliefs and ontological commitments.

“Beneath the uniformity that unites us in communication there is a chaotic personal diversity of connections, and, for each of us, the connections continue to evolve. No two of us learn our language alike, nor, in a sense, does any finish learning it while he lives” (13)

Quine's prose is a little bit too exciting for writing in theoretical philosophy. why didn't he write dry, dull and boring, just like all the rest of the respectable philosophers?

I really don't get how there can be indeterminacy of translation for Quine. His theory states the the meaning of an expression is it's empirical meaning and if two expressions correlate with the same dispositions to (verbal) behaviour, they are alike in meaning, for they have the same empirical meaning.
Now indeterminacy of a sentence S1 would require something like S2 and S3 being equally good translations of it,...

First reading of this book. Admittedly never read it before 😅

Quietly moving how at this point Quine has been citing points "indebted to Davidson" every 5 pages or so. Likewise considering Davidson dedicated his later Inquiries Into Truth and Interpretation to Quine "without whom not".

love/hate relationship with quine so far

Longish

Wonderful preface by Follesdal; very moving testimony of the last months of Quines life