Truth, Language, and Immanence
Truth, Language, and Immanence
This chapter explores Quine's “robust realism.” For Quine, the ontological question can be attested within the framework of our language. Ontological discussions come to an end on their own through “uncritical acceptance” of the uses of words we have learned. As Quine always said, translation begins at home, and my neighbor's ontology is as inscrutable to me as that of the most distant indigene; it is just that the learning we share with our neighbors does not ordinarily result in asking the ontological question. That question emerges only in situations of radical translation. Such is the anthropological sense of radical translation and of the question of language.
Keywords: robust realism, ontological question, quine, radical translation, language
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