Quine, Willard Van Orman

"Questions about the nature of existence are ultimately questions about our conceptual scheme."

"The web of belief must be coherent, but coherence allows multiple configurations."

"Identity criteria for objects are conventional, not discovered in nature itself."

"Language learning is a matter of conditioning and association, not of intuition."

"No fact of the matter can settle questions of ontological interpretation."

"We should prefer theories that are simpler and more unified, all else being equal."

"The so-called laws of logic are revisable principles that we hold fast to maintain stability."

"Phenomenal consciousness and physical description occupy different frameworks of discourse."

"Radical translation is impossible because meanings are embedded in entire systems of belief."

"What unites our thoughts is not some common abstract essence but family resemblances."

"The criterion of truth is not correspondence to reality but coherence with our experience."

"Extension of a predicate depends on context and the decisions we make about borderline cases."

"To understand a sentence is to know what would make it true or false."

"The past is as theory-laden as the present; history is always rewritten from our current perspective."

"Objects are not given in experience; they are constructed through our conceptual activity."

"Science is not a discovered architecture but a constructed and revisable framework."

"Sensory input underdetermines scientific theory, leaving room for multiple rational interpretations."

"The notion of a unique true description of reality is a philosophical myth."

"Attributes and relations are imposed by our conceptual scheme, not found in nature."

"Language is learned through ostensive definition and analogical extension, not by grasping Platonic forms."

"Belief in abstract objects commits us to an opulent ontology that simpler theories can avoid."

"All knowledge is provisional and subject to revision in light of new evidence or theoretical considerations."

"The unity of science does not require reducing all disciplines to physics."

"Vagueness is not a defect of language but a feature of our conceptual practices."

"What counts as an object depends on the language and conceptual framework we adopt."

"Thought and language are so intertwined that we cannot understand one without the other."

"Properties are relative to a theory; there are no intrinsic, theory-independent properties."

"The verification of a sentence requires a grasp of the entire context of discourse."

"Rational disagreement persists because different conceptual schemes underdetermine interpretation."

"Causation is something we project onto the world, not a fundamental feature discovered in nature."