Academic

New on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (and some comments on the importance of Quine for Legal Theory)

By Lawrence Solum

Peter Hylton, Willard Van Orman Quine, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Although I suspect that most readers of LTB have some basic familiarity with Quine, I am sure that many do not.  Several of Quine's ideas are part of the basic repertoire of knowledge for legal theorists.  One of these is his critique of the analytic-synthetic distinction (usually associated with his "Two Dogmas of Empiricism," although an important argument is actually found in "Carnap and Logical Truth."  A second important idea is Quine's "naturalism" or "naturalized epistemology," roughly, ?the recognition that it is within science itself, and not in some prior philosophy, that reality is to be identified and described.?  A third cluster of important ideas is found in his work on "indeterminacy of translation" and the related concept of "underdetermination of theory by evidence."  Introductions to all of these ideas can be found in Hylton's entry, which is highly recommended.

Quine's naturalism is a taking off point for some of Brian Leiter's most important work, e.g., his Naturalizing Jurisprudence.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on April 12, 2010 (boomark / email).