The Philosophy Book

279

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Søren Kierkegaard 194–95 ■ Ferdinand de Saussure 223 ■ Ludwig Wittgenstein 246–51 ■
Roland Barthes 290–91 ■ Daniel Dennett 339

THE MODERN WORLD

If we wanted to determine the
meaning of “gavagai”, we could try
another method. We could point to
other fluffy creatures (or other things
on the dinner menu) and see if our
utterance of “gavagai” met with
assent or dissent. But even if we
were to reach a position where, in
each and every occasion on which
“gavagai” was uttered, we ourselves
would utter the word “rabbit”, we
still could not be sure that this was
an appropriate translation. “Gavagai”
could mean “set of rabbit parts” or
“wood-living rabbit” or “rabbit or
hare”; it might even refer to a short
prayer that must be uttered
whenever a rabbit is seen.

Unsettled language
In attempting to establish the
precise meaning of this mysterious
“gavagai”, therefore, we might think
that the solution would be to learn
the language of our informants
thoroughly, so that we could be
absolutely sure of the contexts in
which the word was spoken. But
this would only result in multiplying
the problem, because we could not

No word has a fixed meaning,

according to Quine. When the

word “rabbit” is spoken, it may

mean any one of a number

of things, depending on the

context in which it is said. Dinner

Pest

Animal

spirit

Pet

Willard Van

Orman Quine

Born in 1908 in Ohio, USA, Quine

studied at Harvard with Alfred

North Whitehead, a philosopher

of logic and mathematics. While

there he also met Bertrand

Russell, who was to become a

profound influence on his thought.

After completing his PhD in 1932,

Quine traveled throughout Europe,

meeting many of its most eminent

philosophers, including several of

the Vienna Circle.

Returning to teach at Harvard,

Quine’s philosophical career was

briefly interrupted during World

War II when he spent four years

decrypting messages for the US

Navy intelligence. A great

traveler, he was said to be

prouder of the fact that he had

visited 118 countries than of his

many awards and fellowships.

Quine became professor of

philosophy at Harvard in 1956,

and taught there until his death

in 2000, aged 92.

Key works

1952 Methods of Logic

1953 From a Logical Point

of View

1960 Word and Object

1990 The Pursuit of Truth

be sure that the other words we

found ourselves using to explain

the meaning of “gavagai” were

themselves accurate translations.

Quine refers to this problem as

the “indeterminacy of translation”,

and it has unsettling implications.

It suggests that ultimately words

do not have meanings. The sense

of somebody uttering “gavagai”

(or, for that matter, “rabbit”), and

of this utterance being meaningful

comes not from some mysterious

link between words and things,

but from the patterns of our

behavior, and the fact that we

have learned to participate in

language as a social art. ■