Philosophy of Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Philosophy of Language - Essay Example The group was called logical positivists, and they accomplished this union by introducing the notion of convention. The class of positivists asserted that logical empiricism was possible through convention or arbitrariness, where agreement would be reached on the meaning of statements. Quine sought to attack this school of thought through a two-pronged approach; reliance on reductionism and making a distinction on analytic and synthetic distinctions. Dogmas are sets of beliefs that are held to be true by certain people without question, and are often called such as a mark of disapproval from an observer or analyst. Quine felt that logical empiricism lacked legitimacy because of two dogmas; one of them was the distinction between analytic and synthetic truths. An analytic truth may be understood as an assertion that is true exclusively because of its meaning while a synthetic one is held as such owing to facts. Quine felt that the distinction between analytic and synthetic sentences was baseless by looking at a series of assumptions and definitions in the school of thought. Quine started with the notion of synonyms where logical positivists claim that a sentence may be defined as analytic if synonyms can be used to substitute original words and the expressions remain logical truths (Schwitzgebel, 2008). However, the philosopher opposed this statement because it presupposes that synonymy is a well understood and defined term, yet it needs to be explained before it can be applied. The philosopher sought to look for other ways in which logical empiricists sought to defend themselves, such as by saying that a logical truth exists if a sentence has terms whose definitions can be substituted by others. Quine has a problem with this component as well because it is not clear whether an irregularity can arise because of the meaning of the term or the belief that one holds about it.