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Single Idea 19049

[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 1. Empiricism ]

Full Idea

We have come to recognise that in a scientific theory even a whole sentence is ordinarily too short a text to serve as an independent vehicle of empirical meaning.

Gist of Idea

In scientific theories sentences are too brief to be independent vehicles of empirical meaning

Source

Willard Quine (Five Milestones of Empiricism [1975], p.70)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'Theories and Things' [Harvard 1981], p.70