Quine's Ontology

Paper Summary:

This paper specifically looks at two essays by Quine: "On What There Is" and "Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis." In each of these essays, Quine eloquently, clearly and often humorously lays out the means by which he arrives at his ontological conclusion. The paper examines these essays, comparing their modes of emparting Quine's theories.

From the Paper:

"If we imagine trying to teach someone, say a stranger to our language, to what thing the name "river" refers, we can point to various "river stages" of the same river, stages which, by virtue of their being spatially spread, adhere to temporal spread as well. "River" it turns out refers not just to an object but to a process, a conglomeration of an infinite number of river stages spread over time and space. To identify to our new friend only "this river", we must assume his prior knowledge of "river". But, to give him the notion of "river" in general, we need only point to numerous river stages of several rivers. Finally, to help our friend's understanding of "Caster", we merely replace "river" with "Caster" in our oral repetitions. By means of induction, a stranger can acquire some modicum of awareness of the words we use to identify spatio-temporal concrete objects."

More papers on Quine's Ontology:

• Research Paper # 5358 : "The Quine-Duhem Thesis"
• Analytical Essay # 145133 : "Quine's Theory of Ontological Relativity"
• Term Paper # 114391 : "The Theories of WV Quine"

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