The Two Dogmas Of Empiricism: Where Are The Arguments?

On The Very Idea - A Philosophy Podcast

In this second part of a three part series, I turn from the logical positivists and focus on Quine's actual arguments against the notion of analyticity. We get into the nitty-gritty of what was actually going on in The Two Dogmas of Empiricism. Quine employs a couple of different methods in his paper to bring down the notion of analytic truths: an attempt to show that all definitions of analyticity are circular which is an argument. But, perhaps most troubling, Quine relies on an occasional confession that he just prefers to operate in a minimalist framework, ‘desert landscapes’ if you will, where a workable concept of essential components to a given word’s meaning do not exist. But, is this enough?