Document Type : Translation & Critic
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Abstract
Quine's theory of meaning can be studied through several aspects. This article concentrates on one of the most important ones, i.e. ''Indeterminacy of translation''. In the thesis, several sides of Quine's philosophy are combined, so that studying and interpreting it seem to be a difficult task. ''Indeterminacy of translation'' says that there is no fact of the matter to choose between two or more inconsistent translation manuals that each of them conforms to all of the native's behavioral criteria. After illustrating the asymmetry between ''indeterminacy of translation'' and ''under-determination of theory of nature'', we can conclude that the certain content of ''Indeterminacy of translation'' is an ontological claim about meaning. Therefore, at first, Quine's understanding of meaning, his preferred ontology, and the relation between these two, must be explained and described, and then the asymmetry between these two theses can be discussed. An attitude toward these subjects from this point of view, not only is perceived an original apprehension of theory of meaning, but also can originate a new method in order to study abstract objects, propositional attitudes and mental states.
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