Working from Within: The Nature and Development of Quine's Naturalism

During the past few decades, a radical shift has occurred in how philosophers conceive of the relation between science and philosophy. A great number of analytic philosophers have adopted what is commonly called a "naturalistic" approach, arguing that their inquiries ought to be in some sense continuous with science. Where early analytic philosophers often relied on a sharp distinction between science and philosophy--the former an empirical discipline concerned with fact, the latter an a priori discipline concerned with meaning--philosophers today largely follow Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) in his seminal rejection of this distinction. Sander Verhaegh here offers a comprehensive study of Quine's groundbreaking naturalism. Building on Quine's published corpus as well as a wealth of unpublished letters, notes, lectures, papers, proposals, and annotations from the Quine archives, Verhaegh aims to reconstruct both the nature and the development of his naturalism. As such, Working from Within aims to contribute to the rapidly developing historiography of analytic philosophy, and to provide a better, historically informed, understanding of what is philosophically at stake in the contemporary naturalistic turn. Transcriptions of five unpublished papers, letters, and notes are included in the appendix.

Table of Contents:
Preface List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction PART I: NATURE 2. Naturalizing Epistemology 3. Naturalizing Metaphysics 4. In Mediis Rebus PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5. Sign and Object 6. Analytic and Synthetic 7. Science and Philosophy 8. Conclusion Appendices Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Sander Verhaegh is an assistant professor at the Tilburg Center for Logic, Ethics, and Philosophy of Science (TiLPS) at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. His work on Quine's philosophy has been published in, among others, the Journal of the History of Philosophy, Erkenntnis, Philosophers' Imprint, Synthese, the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. His study of Quine's archives has been funded by Houghton Library, Harvard University, and the Journal of the History of Philosophy.

Review :
"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." -- Ali Hossein Khani, The Philosophical Quarterly "Verhaegh masterly combines a deeply informative and clear presentation of Quine's views with a detailed and revealing reconstruction of the numerous archive materials ... Verhaegh's book is thus a very nice step ... toward a very much missed and required integrated history and philosophy within analytic philosophy." -- Adam Tamas Tuboly, Metascience "Working from Within is an impressive scholarly and philosophical achievement. Its exemplary use of archival sources to construct a richer, deeper account of the nature and development of Quine's naturalism sets a new standard in Quine scholarship. Everyone who wants to understand Quine's naturalism should read it." -- Gary Ebbs, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "Verhaegh masterly combines a deeply informative and clear presentation of Quine's views with a detailed and revealing reconstruction of numerous archive materials [...] a real masterpiece of historical scholarship" -- Adam Tamas Tuboly, Metascience "Using the wealth of materials and letters found in the Quine archives at Houghton Library in Harvard, Sander Verhaegh has constructed a masterful account of Quine's philosophical development, one which is especially focused on the emergence of Quine's naturalism. He highlights the main problems Quine faced as his constructive view fell into place, some of these seemingly lost to history, while further defending novel interpretations of this development that challenge standard readings [...] Verhaegh has provided an authoritative guide to Quine's philosophical development, one which all students of Quine's naturalism will need to study" -- Robert Sinclair, British Journal for the History of Philosophy "This outstanding book combines a splendid overview of Quine's naturalism with a mastery of his archive. We get to see the ideas of Word and Object emerge and learn what mattered most to Quine in writing it. ... Verhaegh's book is indispensable." -- Richard Creath, President's Professor of Philosophy, Arizona State University "A deeply informative and historically grounded guide to Quine's naturalism. By reconstructing the evolution of Quine's writing of Word and Object over a period of nearly twenty years (and providing a scholarly guide to the Quine archives), Verhaegh shows how Quine's numerous manuscripts and correspondence reveal the most important and difficult philosophical juncture points Quine had to face in writing his first major philosophical book. In the twists and turns of Quine's own struggles with articulating his philosophical thoughts, Verhaegh shows us much of the true depth, dynamism, and sophistication of Quine's thought." -- Juliet Floyd, Professor of Philosophy, Boston University "This is an outstanding work. I agree with the main points, am grateful for them, and heartily applaud the sheer amount of work that has gone into it, philosophical as well as scholarly. I learned. Every Quine-scholar will have to read it and many students would be well-advised to read it also." -- Gary Kemp, Senior Lecturer of Philosophy, University of Glasgow