Philosophical Interpretation Of W.V. Quine’s Thesis Of Indeterminacy Of Translation

Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) was an outstanding American philosopher,mathematician, and logician in the analytic tradition in the latter half of the20thcentury.Quine s thesis of indeterminacy of translation has puzzled a large circle of philosophersfor more than50years. Quine s thesis, undoubtedly, is among the best-known andmost-disputed theses in contemporary philosophy; and thus, it is of no difficulty forreaders to find the interpretations of Quine s thesis of indeterminacy of translationeverywhere. Unquestionably, there is no determinate solution to any philosophicalproblem. Quine s thesis could be interpreted in divergent ways by different readers. Theremight even be two Quines in one reader s eyes at the same time. It is no wonder, therefore,that such interpretations as what Quine s thesis of indeterminacy of translation is, how itrelates to Quine s other relevant theses, and what it derives from, vary as time and readersdiffer.Philosophical interpretation of Quine s thesis of indeterminacy of translation in thispaper is totally based on Quine s authentic works. On the one hand, it may help readersget rid of certain prejudice against Quine s thesis by means of dissipating theirmisinterpretations; in the meantime, it may enable readers to understand this thesis inmore depth at a higher level. To be specific, Quine s thesis of indeterminacy of translationcan be compared to a point. If we would like to obtain a relatively comprehensivephilosophical interpretation of this point, there are two requirements. The first requirementis that relations of this point with other relevant points have to be clarified, in other words,horizontal philosophical interpretation of this thesis is required. In this paper, the relationsbetween the three doctrines of indeterminacy are made clear:(1) among the threeindeterminacies (indeterminacy of translation, indeterminacy of meaning, andindeterminacy of reference), indeterminacy of meaning is the logical starting point;(2)indeterminacy of translation can be graded into three types according to the degree of indeterminacy: weak indeterminacy in translation, strong indeterminacy in translation, andmuch stronger indeterminacy in translation;(3) indeterminacy of reference is exactlystrong indeterminacy in translation. A second requirement is that diachronic developmentof this point, to put it another way, vertical philosophical interpretation of Quine s thesishas to be completed. As for the reason why Quine s thesis has to be comprehended from aphilosophical point of view, it is the philosophical attribute of the thesis that determines.Through vertical philosophical interpretation of Quine s thesis of indeterminacy oftranslation, three main philosophical origins are found out, including linguisticbehaviorism, ontological relativity, and meaning holism.At the same time, philosophical revelations gleaned from the process of interpretingare applied to translation studies. In the light of Quine s thesis of indeterminacy oftranslation, it is of great necessity to return to translation theories themselves by probinginto the intension and extension of the concepts within them and clarifying the relations ofthese concepts with other mutually correlated concepts, namely, accelerate the linguisticturn of translation theories; moreover, it is of great significance to rethink translatabilityand untranslatability of language from Quine s point of view. Besides, reasoning behindQuine s thesis of indeterminacy of translation can also be used to explain issues and topicsin translation practice: multiplicity of translation criteria, and changeability of translationmethods.Quine’s thesis of indeterminacy of translation has figured too centrally not only in thefield of philosophy, but in the areas of linguistics and translation studies. Even if peoplecannot reach a consensus on the significance of Quine s thesis of indeterminacy oftranslation, perhaps just because of the occurrence of these disagreements, Quine s thesisis still worth further exploration. Misinterpretations of Quine s thesis do not matter toomuch. Most importantly, we are on the way in pursuit of truth of Quine.