Early Origins of Quine's Principle of Indeterminancy of Translation
Abstract
Unfortunately perhaps for the reader, the following
essay is more a product of perspiration than one of inspiration.
It was originally to have been an examination
of the second chapter of Quine's Word and Object, but in
the course of reading some of Quine's earlier work for
background material, I became interested in tracing the
arguments of a single essay, titled "The Problem of Meaning
in Linguistics". The result is this essay, in effect, an
extended expligue du texte of the essay in which the early
version of what, in Word and Object, was to become the .
"principle of indeterminacy of translation" makes its first
extended appearance.
For the reader unacquainted with Quine's work at firsthand,
the warning might well be 1n order that the present
essay preserves little of that author's wit and polished
writing style--an observation unnecessary for those who
have read Quine. On the other hand, one should also keep
in mind that what follows is, essentially, an exercise,
whether we call it a "thesis" or an essay. This is not to
be11ttle its value--to the writer, if not to possible
readers--but to suggest that should this essay strike the
reader as less than exciting the issues it discusses are
definitely exciting, as well as extremely controversial and
well worth pursuing.