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1、Quine,WillardVanOrman(1908-)Quineistheforemostrepresentativeofnaturalisminthesecondhalfofthetwentiethcentury.Hisnaturalismconsistsofaninsistenceuponacloseconnectionoralliancebetweenphilosophicalviewsandthoseofthenaturalsciences.Philosophysoconstruedisanactivitywithinnaturewhereinnat
2、ureexaminesitself.Thiscontrastswithviewswhichdistinguishphilosophyfromscienceandplacephilosophyinaspecialtranscendentpositionforgainingspecialknowledge.Themethodsofscienceareempirical;soQuine,whooperateswithinascientificperspective,isanempiricist,butwithadifference.Traditionalempiri
3、cism,asinLocke,Berkeley,Humeandsometwentieth-centuryforms,takesimpressions,ideasorsense-dataasthebasicunitsofthought.Quine’sempiricism,bycontrast,takesaccountofthetheoreticalaswellastheobservationalfacetsofscience.Theunitofempiricalsignificanceisnotsimpleimpressions(ideas)orevenisol
4、atedindividualobservationsentences,butsystemsofbeliefs.Thebroadtheoreticalconstraintsforchoicebetweentheories,suchasexplanatorypower,parsimony,precisionandsoon,areforemostinthisempiricism.Heisafallibilist,sinceheholdsthateachindividualbeliefinasystemisinprinciplerevisable.Quinepropo
5、sesanewconceptionofobservationsentences,anaturalizedaccountofourknowledgeoftheexternalworld,includingarejectionofaprioriknowledge,andheextendsthesameempiricistandfallibilistaccounttoourknowledgeoflogicandmathematics.Quineconfineslogictofirst-orderlogicandclearlydemarcatesitfromsetth
6、eoryandmathematics.TheseareallempiricalsubjectswhenempiricismisunderstoodinitsQuinianform.Theyareinternaltooursystemofbeliefsthatmakeupthenaturalsciences.Thelanguageoffirst-orderlogicservesasacanonicalnotationinwhichtoexpressourontologicalcommitments.Theslogan‘Tobeistobethevalueofav
7、ariable’([1953]1961:15)encapsulatesthisproject.Decidingwhichontologytoacceptisalsocarriedoutwithinthenaturalisticconstraintsofempiricalscience-ourontologicalcommitmentsshouldbetothoseobjectstowhichthebestscientifictheoriescommitus.OnthisbasisQuine’sowncommitmentsaretophysicalobjects
8、andsets.Quineisaphy
