Word and Object

Quine's 1960 masterwork reshaped analytic philosophy so thoroughly that its central arguments — the indeterminacy of translation, the rejection of the analytic-synthetic distinction, naturalistic ontology — became reference points for every serious philosopher of language and mind who followed. The thought experiment of the radical translator trying to decode a completely unknown language is one of the most productive in modern philosophy. This is one of those rare books where the arguments have genuinely held up under decades of serious critical assault. The honest caveat is equally plain: this is graduate-level analytic philosophy written for specialists, and readers without a strong background in logic and philosophy of language will find it impenetrable. Not a faith conflict so much as a naturalist presupposition that theistic readers will want to note.