Quine and the End of Positivism

Philosophy of Language: Quine's Ideas on the understanding of meaning of words.

The Goldfarb Panel Professor Warren Goldfarb is chairman of the philosophy department at Harvard University. He specializes in logic, history of logic and philosophy of mathematics and as translated and edited the Logical Writings of Jacques Herbrand.

He has also co-authored with Burton Dreben The Decision Problem and Solvable Classes of Quantificational Formulae. The program begins with a discussion of Professor Quine's early philosophical career at Harvard and considers his relationship with logical positivists, most notable with Rudolf Carnap.

This background sets stage for a thorough discussion of Quine's naturalism, and in particular his naturalized epistemology. Questions about the famous two dogmas are raised, and attention is drawn to his doctrines of extentionalism and ontological relativity.