Philippine E-Journals

Philosophical Commitments: Explaining the Incompatibility between Wittgenstein and Quine's Views

John Ian K. Boongaling

Discipline: Philosophy

 

Abstract:

In the post-analytic/post-positivist period of Western philosophy, Ludwig Wittgenstein and W. V. Quine would no doubt count as distinguished members of the class of great philosophers. If we read the works of these philosophers, it seems prima facie plausible to identify significant affinities between the ideas and thought experiments that they presented and the positions that they defended. Several commentators have argued that such affinities are merely superficial. In this article, I will exert the issue even further as I maintain that the similarities are not merely superficial. They are, upon closer examination, incompatible. The incompatibility between their views can ultimately be explained by their different philosophical commitments.