It´s Possible a Pragmatic Realism? Quine and the Naturalism

Abstract

Although Quine is somehow reluctant about seeing his name associated to the pragmatist tradition, it is a fact that the conceptual similarities between them outweigh their differences and, hence, that the Quinean naturalism may well be understood as a particular version of pragmatism or, in other words, a philosophy with typically pragmatist colours. Particularly significant is his claim that behaviouristic semantics — a distinctive trait of pragmatism — could be listed as the sixth milestone of the post-humean empiricism, but he preferred not to do it, for he already saw it “as an integrant part of naturalism”. Or, accepting that and considering that Quinean naturalism is also a realism, it is to be examined whether or how a pragmatic realism may be sustained. In other words, what we want here to exploit, though briefly, is (1) Quine’s line-up to the pragmatic tradition and (2) the fact that his naturalistic realism can also be thought and conceived as a pragmatic realism.