Willard Van Orman Quine
philosopher · 2 mentions across 2 readings
In this course
Quine appears in the readings as a foundational figure in debates about meaning, reference, and the underdetermination of theory by evidence—positions that ground contemporary discussions about how symbolic systems (including AI and machine learning models) map onto reality. His work enables arguments about semantic indeterminacy and the permutability of theoretical frameworks, which the course readings draw on when exploring how multiple equally-valid interpretations can emerge from the same empirical data or training set. The reference here is relatively brief, used to establish philosophical precedent for the idea that meaning and truth are not fixed by the world alone.
Mentioned in 2 readings
Appears alongside
People mentioned in the same passages — sorted by co-occurrence weight.