Working from Within

Verhaegh's rich and stimulating book on the evolution of Quine's naturalism in his works consists of eight chapters which together form two general parts: Part one concerns the nature and part two concentrates on the development and reception of Quine's naturalism. After a very informative introduction, Verhaegh, in Chapters 2 and 3, respectively discusses Quine's Naturalizing Epistemology and Naturalizing Metaphysics. Chapter 2 starts by questioning the Standard Conception of Quine's argument against first philosophy, the argument from despair presented especially in ‘Epistemology Naturalized’. According to this argument, naturalized epistemology can emerge only when we ‘stop dreaming of deducing science from sense data’ and ‘despair of being able to define theoretical terms generally in terms of phenomena’ (16). Verhaegh argues that this conception ignores Quine's stronger argument, i.e., that the project of traditional epistemology ‘is demonstrably flawed from the beginning’ (17) since no science-independent, self-sufficient perspective is available. We are bound to work from within our best scientific theory of the world (18–31). Verhaegh later characterizes Quine's naturalism as consisting of two main theses: rejecting any detached science-independent perspective on reality (No Transcendence) and ‘the prima facie acceptance of our inherited scientific theories and methods’ (Scientific Immanence) (54).

Argument (complex analysis) · Epistemology · Metaphysics · Naturalism · Philosophy of science · Prima facie · Quine · Teleology · Chemistry · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy, Science, and History · Science and Climate Studies