2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Quine, Conceptual Pragmatism and the Analytic-Synthetic Distinction
| Project/Area Number |
17K02269
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
History of thought
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| Research Institution | Soka University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | Quine / Lewis / Naturalized Epistemology / Pragmatism / Analyticity / A Priori |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Quine’s occasional references to his ‘pragmatism’ suggest a possible link to the American Pragmatism of Peirce, James and Dewey. This research project argues that the influence of pragmatism on Quine’s philosophy is more accurately traced to his teacher C.I. Lewis and his conceptual pragmatism. Quine’s epistemological views share many affinities with Lewis’s conceptual pragmatism, where knowledge is conceived as a conceptual framework pragmatically revised in light of what future experience reveals. This view is further defended by showing how Lewis’s influence can be seen in several key episodes in Quine’s philosophical development. This not only highlights a forgotten element of the epistemological backdrop to Quine’s mid-century criticism of the analytic-synthetic distinction, but provides the central epistemological framework for understanding the form of Quine’s later naturalized conception of epistemology.
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| Free Research Field |
History of American Pragmatism
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
This project provides the first detailed account of Lewis's influence on Quine's developing views in epistemology and his famous critique of the analytic-synthetic distinction. It further shows that Lewis’s later epistemology is a key source of Quine’s naturalized epistemology.
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