Quine: A Guide for the Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed) 1st Edition

by Gary Kemp (Author)

3 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0826484871

ISBN-10: 0826484875

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Willard Van Orman Quine is one of the most influential analytic philosophers of the latter half of the twentieth century. No serious student of modern analytic philosophy can afford to ignore Quine's work. Yet there is no doubt that it presents a considerable challenge. The book offers clear explication and analysis of Quine's writings and ideas in all those areas of philosophy to which he contributed (except technical matters in logic). Quine's work is set in its intellectual context, illuminating his connections to Russell, Carnap and logical positivism. Detailed attention is paid to Word and Object, Quine's seminal text, and to his important theories on the nature of truth, knowledge and reality. This text presents an account of Quine'sphilosophy as a unified whole, identifying and exploring the themes and approaches common to his seemingly disparate concerns, and showing this to be the key to understanding fully the work of this major modern thinker.

Quine: A Guide for the Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed)

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Product Details

Series: Guides for the Perplexed
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic; 1 edition (June 23, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0826484875
ISBN-13: 978-0826484871
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,369,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5346 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Philosophy > History & Surveys
- #6314 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Modern

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It conveys the big picture

ByDavid Lumsdenon June 19, 2009

Format: Paperback

Quine is a central figure in the analytic tradition within philosophy, a tradition that aims for clarity, so should we expect to be perplexed by his clear and elegant prose? There is a challenge in coming to terms with Quine's thought, which relates to the way it hangs together as a whole system. We can struggle to understand one aspect of his thought through failing to see how it fits into the whole scheme. Gary Kemp's book serves the invaluable purpose of taking the reader carefully and systematically through all the major facets of Quine's work such that we do get to see the big picture. For this reason it will be useful even to professional philosophers who have been familiar with various parts of Quine's work over many years. Even so, it is designed for the reader who is at an earlier stage, and for that reason prepares the ground with carefully phrased introductory material where required. In fact there is really no specific prior knowledge that is required, for wherever any technical notions appear they are carefully explained. What is required is patience and a certain level of concentration. The book starts with the intellectual origins of Quine's work and the key features of the work of predecessors, notably Carnap, is explained. There are plentiful quotations from the full range of Quine's work. While the emphasis is not on tracing the development of Quine's thought the reader's attention is drawn to places where there has been a shift of view or emphasis in later work. As an example consider the theme of the relationship between Quine's views about meaning and translation and his views about epistemology. Quine famously denies that our ordinary notion of meaning has a place in a scientific description of the world, and holds that our practice of translation can only be understood as dealing with a language as a whole. When it comes to epistemology Quine holds to a naturalized version, one that captures the way that science builds theory on the basis of observation. He thinks that only a whole theory can be tested against observations. Kemp describes the links between these ideas while pointing out (p. 79) how Quine's later work loosens the connection between them. This is a first rate book which philosophers will keep reaching for over many years.

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Headlines make a writer sound dumb when the review is negative

ByNot me, but somebody elseon March 3, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I don't think Kemp quite gets into the mind of the intended reader. He gives definitions and explanations of the terms and concepts being employed, but often definition and explanation alone are not sufficient when approaching something without context, as an introduction is meant to presuppose. (And all to often writers confuse placing a word in italics with explaining it properly; Kemp is generous with the italics.) You need to know how the definition or explanation given is meant to differentiate the term from what it is not. There may be several ways of accomplishing this, but one great way I know if is by giving examples. But Kemp does not offer enough, and not in the right places. As an example, on page 14 he explains the two requirements of a definition, that it must be eliminative and creative. He explains these concepts, but then moves on without example to introducing two more concepts, explicit and contextual. There are examples given in the section as a whole, and if you look closely and work hard you might be able to suss out that these are giving examples of these four principles in action, but Kemp does not explicitly point out to us these connections. In short, Kemp just moves too fast and assumes to much for this to function as a true guide for the perplexed. I don't know of a better introduction to Quine, but I'd take John P. Burgess' introduction to Kripke in the Key Contemporary Thinkers series as a prime example of a good introduction to a philosopher, just by way of evidence that it can be done.

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A Surprising Tour de Force

BySP Michaelson May 18, 2009

Format: Paperback

This book is a tour de force. It covers a wide range of engaging topics (language, mathematics,
epistemology, truth, metaphysics, logic, and translation) and offers a refreshingly clear picture
of some of Quine's main ideas. It is obvious that Professor Kemp has a gift for demystifying
challenging ideas and topics, something all-too-rare in philosophy these days. In addition to
being an analysis of Quine's work, it is fair to say that this book equally serves as a road map to the key
themes and ideas in analytic philosophy and Quine's connection to some of its great figures
such as Russell, Carnap, Wittgenstein, and Frege. I think this book is a little gem for both
philosophers and general readers interested in science, logic, metaphysics and the philosophy of
language. Although this book is certainly not for "dummies", Kemp
makes it look easy!

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