Review of Christopher Hookway: Quine: Language, Experience

Abstract

Quine's philosophical development would run from his early essays supporting holism and leaning towards pragmatism to his later writings where pragmatism seems to be more or less waived while empiricism and holism are kept and physicalism becomes more and more emphasized. Hookway regards such an evolution more as an increasing clearness on Quine's part than as a real change of mind. The book attempts a comparative study of Quine's thought as against nowadays widely accepted Davidsonian doctrines and finally a short, cautious critical assessment. The most regrettable limitation of this book is that it all but ignores that for Quine most philosophical questions are matters of degree. Is Quine's view compatible with his adherence to classical logic?