Editorial Introduction

Abstract

In the philosophical literature of the last decade few if any works contain a greater wealth of ideas or pose more important problems than Professor W. V. Quine’s Word and Object. Not surprisingly, this book has already exerted considerable influence on subsequent philosophical discussion. It seems to us, however, that this influence has largely been tacit and in consequence the issues raised in Word and Object have not been faced as squarely in print as they ought to have been. The present special number of Synthese has largely been prompted by our desire to encourage philosophers to address themselves directly to the issues raised by Word and Object and thus to facilitate the seminal influence of this masterly work. In order to turn this discussion of Word and Object into a dialogue, we invited Quine to comment on the papers, to which he kindly consented. We hope that the resulting exchanges will elicit the implications of Quine’s work even more clearly than before.