<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The paper considers the Quinean heritage of the argument for the indeterminacy of translation. Beyond analyzing Quine’s notion of stimulus meaning, the paper discusses two Kripkean argument’s against the Quinean claim that dispositions can provide the basis for an account of meaning: the Normativity Argument and the Finiteness Argument. An analogy between Kripke’s arguments and Hume’s argument for epistemological skepticism about the external world will be drawn. The paper shows that the answer to Kripke’s rule-following skepticism is analogous to the answer to Humean skepticism: our use of concepts is more basic than, and presupposed by, the statement of the skeptical problem itself.</p></abstract>

The paper considers the Quinean heritage of the argument for the indeterminacy of translation. Beyond analyzing Quine’s notion of stimulus meaning, the paper discusses two Kripkean argument’s against the Quinean claim that dispositions can provide the basis for an account of meaning: the Normativity Argument and the Finiteness Argument. An analogy between Kripke’s arguments and Hume’s argument for epistemological skepticism about the external world will be drawn. The paper shows that the answer to Kripke’s rule-following skepticism is analogous to the answer to Humean skepticism: our use of concepts is more basic than, and presupposed by, the statement of the skeptical problem itself.

The Indeterminacy of Translation: Fifty Years Later

Disputatio

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Indeterminacy of Translation: Fifty Years Later"}

The paper considers the Quinean heritage of the argument for the indeterminacy of translation. Beyond analyzing Quine’s notion of stimulus meaning, the paper...

The Indeterminacy of Translation: Fifty Years Later

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 385 - 393

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2012-0005

Keywords
Indeterminacy of Translation, Kripkean Normativity Argument, Kripkean Finiteness Argument, Humean Skepticism, Naïve Realism

© 2012 Stephen L. White, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Indeterminacy of Translation: Fifty Years Later

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 385 - 393

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2012-0005

KeywordsIndeterminacy of Translation, Kripkean Normativity Argument, Kripkean Finiteness Argument, Humean Skepticism, Naïve Realism

© 2012 Stephen L. White, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Indeterminacy of Translation, Kripkean Normativity Argument, Kripkean Finiteness Argument, Humean Skepticism, Naïve Realism