Abstract

This dissertation is an examination of certain ideas arising out of the philosophy of Donald Davidson and specifically out of his conception of 'radical interpretation'. The aim of the work is only partly one of exegesis; primarily it attempts to develop the idea of 'interpretative holism' implicit in Davidson's work and to develop also the implications which flow from that holism. The notion of interpretative holism is a development on the Davidsonian idea of the interdependence of meaning and belief--an interdependence which sets the essential problem of radical interpretation--but it also encompasses the other Davidsonian marriage of truth with meaning. This emphasis on interpretative holism and the particular way in which the notion is developed in the dissertation brings with it an orientation more towards hermeneutic theories of interpretation than to traditional philosophy of language. The first part of the work lays out the basic account of Davidsonian radical interpretation with respect to its Quinean background and as it is developed through Davidson's own work. Here the basic ideas of holism, charity and indeterminacy are set out. The second part takes up Davidson's application of these ideas to the problems of conceptual relativism and epistemological scepticism; the question of the transcendental and verificationist status of Davidson's argument on these matters is also discussed. The third and final part looks at the Davidsonian position in the context of Putnam's distinction between metaphysical and 'internal' realisms and looks more closely at the conception of truth implicit in interpretative holism