Quine’s indeterminacy thesis allows limited but real intercultural philosophical knowledge

Evidence

Oruka’s assertion gives the impression that Quine’s thesis is about impossi- bility. It is not. Rather, it is about indeterminacy, about the same distortion of representation, for example. A distorted picture of a person may still be recog- nized as representing that person. In addition, it cannot be the person because it is merely a representation. Furthermore, what Quine and Wittgenstein postulate has nothing to do with the contents of African philosophy, but with the possi- bility of its valid rendering in discursive academic French or English prose. It is not totally impossible to get intercultural knowledge. Even though that possi- bility is limited, it is there. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 573

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Clarifies that Quine’s underdetermination is about indeterminacy of translation, not impossibility of rendering African thought.
• XREF: Connects to Quine’s ‘gavagai’ indeterminacy of translation and to the wider debate on whether African philosophy can be rendered in Western academic languages.

Related

• Quine’s radical translation thesis makes cross-cultural concept comparison impossible (similarity 0.88)
• Meaning is determined by behavior and context, preventing universal translation. (similarity 0.83)
• African philosophy must grow from indigenous cultural resources to enrich humanity. (similarity 0.81)
• African philosophy has been defined more by negation than by positive formulation (similarity 0.81)
• Behavior determines meaning, blocking radical language translation (similarity 0.81)
• African philosophy is both universal inquiry and continentally rooted cultural reflection (similarity 0.81)
• Absolute insider-outsider thought differences would block all cross-cultural knowledge (similarity 0.80)
• African philosophy may encompass Western philosophy as a subset in its scope (similarity 0.80)
• Philosophy’s territory cannot be framed from a single cultural perspective. (similarity 0.79)
• Only Western-educated African intellectuals initially engaged with Bantu Philosophy. (similarity 0.79)
• Africa’s neglected philosophical traditions can reshape the very definition of philosophy (similarity 0.79)
• The debate over African philosophy asks who is entitled to write it (similarity 0.79)
• African philosophy must arise from its own cultural circumstances rather than replicate other traditions. (similarity 0.79)
• African philosophy sifts Western ideas to reject racism yet adopt useful knowledge (similarity 0.79)
• Intercultural philosophers can bridge disparate academic worlds (similarity 0.79)