Abstract

Is it feasible to treat Quine’s philosophy as a systematic, integrated whole? Superficially, at least, that philosophy is likely to impress one as being not so much a system, as a kaleidoscope of theories and pronouncements, worked out in response to individual issues and questions, and more or less as occasion would seem to demand, and with little indication as to how the various philosophical doctrines go together to make up what one could properly call an entire philosophy. Here, however, is a book by a French scholar and philosopher, which describes itself as an attempt to see Quine "in perspective." Rather than in perspective, it is more as if Quine’s sundry doctrines and positions were being considered in their relation to one another and as reinforcing one another, and even as undergoing change and development in response not just to external criticism, but to internal stresses and strains as well.