Word and Object

Quine's most systematic book, a naturalistic study of how language connects with the world and of what our theories commit us to. It opens by treating language as a social skill learned from responses to shared stimuli. The second chapter introduces radical translation: a linguist meets speakers of an unknown language who say 'Gavagai' when a rabbit runs past. Quine argues that all the behavioural evidence is compatible with translating the word as 'rabbit', 'undetached rabbit part' or 'rabbit stage', so translation is indeterminate and there is no fact of the matter about meaning beyond what behaviour shows. Later chapters trace how children acquire reference, discuss ambiguity and opacity, and recommend regimenting scientific language into first-order logic. The 'flight from intension' rejects meanings, propositions and necessity as unclear, and the last chapter, on ontic decision, asks which objects a theory must accept. The book is dedicated to Carnap, whose views it often opposes.

Its arguments about the indeterminacy of translation and the gavagai example still shape debates about meaning, reference, interpretation and naturalism.