Naturalist Structuralism's Aporia? Essentialism, Indeterminacy, and Nostalgia – a response to Paul Livingston

Authors

  • Samuel C. Wheeler III University of Connecticut, Philosophy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5399/uo/konturen.2.1.1316

Abstract

This essay argues that what Livingston calls the “structuralist” project, combined with a naturalistic, external approach to language, does not in fact lead to a paradoxical failure to match lived language. Quine’s indeterminacy argument is not a consequence of naturalism and structuralism, but is rather a consequence of thorough anti-essentialism, a thesis he shares with Derrida and Davidson. Contemporary naturalism is in fact not committed to Quine’s thesis. Davidson’s views are a purification of the views of Quine, removing Quine’s empiricist appeal to stimulus meaning and Quine’s scientism. Davidson abandons the conventionalist conception of language but retains the “structuralist” conception of language, as captured by a truth-definition. The indeterminacy thesis is a consequence of anti-essentialism applied to semantics, that is, the denial of transcendental signifieds. The essay concludes by arguing that Quine’s aporia (which is also Davidson’s and Derrida’s aporia) is a discovery rather than a paradox.

Author Biography

Samuel C. Wheeler III, University of Connecticut, Philosophy

Samuel C. Wheeler III received his Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College in 1966 and his PhD in Philosophy from Princeton University in 1970.  He writes on analytic philosophy of language, metaphysics, political philosophy, ancient philosophy, and the relationship between Derrida and analytic philosophy. From 2001-2007 he was editor of Public Affairs Quarterly.  In 2000, Stanford University Press published his Deconstruction as Analytic Philosophy.  Since 1970, he has been at various times firefighter, EMT, Deputy Chief, Second Assistant Chief, Lieutenant, etc., in one or the other of the Willington, Connecticut Fire Departments.  He is married to Pamela Balch Wheeler and has two children, Lydia Balch Wheeler and Samuel C. Wheeler IV.

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Published

2010-10-11

How to Cite

Wheeler III, S. C. (2010). Naturalist Structuralism’s Aporia? Essentialism, Indeterminacy, and Nostalgia – a response to Paul Livingston. Konturen, 2(1), 43–53. https://doi.org/10.5399/uo/konturen.2.1.1316