Introduction

1. Part of modern philosophy has been the recognition of the influence of science on all thinking, even philosophy; for example, Hobbes' materialism.

2. The advances in neuroscience have furthered this interest.

3. Some of the biggest issues in present day philosophy have to do with what science can tell us about the world and ourselves; but an even bigger issue is whether a philosopher to learn from science has to adopt and promote a materialistic metaphysic.

A. Naturalized Knowledge--Willard van Orman Quine (Word and Object, The Web of Belief, "The Two Dogmas of Empiricism")

1. Quine started his career with a famous article called "The Two Dogmas of Empiricism" in which he showed that at the bases of traditional empiricism (i.e., Hume and Russell) are two unsubstantial claims:

a. the distinction between analytic and synthetic is unfounded; it gives an unwarranted, privileged position to philosophy over against science; there are

not "analytical truths" which are the exclusive domain of philosophy

b. all knowledge goes back to sense experiences, but this is reductionism is

unproven; in fact, we don't trace our knowledge back to individual

sensations; rather we presuppose the whole of science of vouchsafe our

knowledge.

2. Behind all our beliefs about the world is a "web of beliefs"--each belief is related to the others, none able to stand alone, and most anchored to the world beyond the web only indirectly but the most firm attachments we have to the world are derived from observation sentences (those directly and firmly associated with our stimulations); the web is disturbed only slightly at the edges but fundamentally at the center

a. observation sentences are the final checkpoint of our knowledge

b. prediction is the key requirement

c. truth is not correspondence but coherence within the "web"

3. The indeterminacy of knowledge and translations

a. meaning is ambiguous

b. we construct our translation manuals

c. hence, indeterminacy runs deep

4. The ontological commitment to there being objects in the world is not infallibly proven; it's just what our scientific common sense tells us; science is based on a physicalism alone;

hence science is the arbiter of ontology.

5. Naturalized epistemology--epistemology is contained in neuroscience; we trust our beliefs about the world because evolution has produced a belief system which guarantees its success.