Collection
Book Symposium: Quine, Conceptual Pragmatism, and the Analytic-Synthetic Distinction (Robert Sinclair)
W. V. Quine’s occasional references to his ‘pragmatism’ have often been interpreted as suggesting a possible link to the American Pragmatism of Peirce, James, and Dewey. In Quine, Conceptual Pragmatism, and the Analytic-Synthetic Distinction Robert Sinclair argues that the influence of pragmatism on Quine’s philosophy is more accurately traced to his teacher C.I. Lewis. 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. Sinclair defends and elaborates on this claim by showing how Lewis’s influence can be seen in several key episodes in Quine’s philosophical development. This highlights a forgotten element of the epistemological backdrop to Quine’s mid-century criticism of the analytic-synthetic distinction, which, Sinclair further argues, provides the central epistemological framework for the form and content of Quine’s later naturalized conception of epistemology.
This book symposium includes a precis by the author; critical engagement by Sander Verhaegh, Carl Sachs, Paul L. Franco, and Masato Ishida; and replies by the author.
Editors
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Masashi Kasaki
Masashi Kasaki is Associate Professor of Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences/School of Integrated Arts and Sciences of Hiroshima University. He is a co-founder of the Asian Epistemology Network and an associate editor of the Asian Journal of Philosophy. He works mainly in epistemology, philosophical methodology, and experimental philosophy.
