Abstract

W. V. Quine suggests that meaning derives from the stimulus, the effects of the outside world on the subject’s nerve endings. However, the idiosyncrasy of the stimulus poses challenges to the intersubjectivity of meaning. Gary Kemp proposes the stimulus field approach as a solution. The stimulus field approach focuses on the forces affecting the subject, rather than the effects on the subject. In this article, I critique Kemp’s solution. Furthermore, I argue that the Quinean approach can be refined in a way that two agents may converge on the same meaning even without sharing the same stimuli or forces affecting them.