Tuesday, January 31, 2006

On Cross-Civilisation Indeterminacy of Translation

Following the argument in lecture last Thursday that radical translation is impossible and that all understanding between civilisations is necessarily indeterminate, here are links to the two philosphical justifications I used.

A good presentation of Quine's "gavagai" thought experiment is
here.

The argument is in Quine's
Word & Object, on Course Reserve.

Thomas Nagel's What is it Like to be a Bat? is on-line here (as well as being on Course Reserve.)

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