Semantic Naturalized and Semantic Holism: Quine's Account

Abstract

Semantics is the philosophical and scientific study of meaning in natural and artificial languages. Semantic Naturalism is a metaphysical doctrine about the status of semantic propositions.[1]Isomorphism is the structural identity of two languages or one-to-one correspondence of two propositions. To say of two languages are isomorphic is to say that they have the same structural identity or logical form. If there is an isomorphism from P to Q, then there is no structural difference between the two rings. The ring Qcan is thought of as a copy of P. Let P be a ring. The map id: P→P is then obviously a ring isomorphism.[1]Semantic holism is a theory of meaning in which meaning is a multidimensional phenomenon where meaning belongs to the whole of a language-game and is itself a whole in the sense that it is neither a composite entity nor it is a single content.[1]This paper proposes to examine the central notion of how semantics is naturalized in Quine's Philosophy. And also this paper will focus upon the relationship among naturalized semantics, isomorphism and semantic holism. Quine has quoted it, but expression of the naturalizing urge can be found much earlier in the history of philosophy.