The problem of conventions and communication: Searle and Quine
Jacquie Ure - 'Red Filter'
The methodological choices made by philosophers of language John R Searle and Willard van Orman Quine greatly affect their capacity to shed light on the problematic relationship between conventions and communication. Much of the debate between Searle and Quine is not explicitly directed at this relationship; however, when one trawls their works for a solution, problem in mind, their views become conspicuous, like colours in a picture that stand out when viewed through a coloured filter. When the task is solving the problematic relationship between conventions and communication, Searle’s approach prevails over Quine’s. Quine’s methodology presupposes that communication is always underdetermined and that the only means by which to gain knowledge of conventions is to search out behavioural regularities. Contrariwise, Searle’s methodology presupposes that any competent language user already possesses all they need to communicate. From there he looks to study the rule-based conventions of communication. This Lydian Mode entry analyses Quine’s and Searle’s methodologies to find if they possess the capacity to solve the problematic relationship between conventions and communication. It concludes that Searle’s theory of speech acts creates the possibility for bridging the gap in our understanding of conventions and their role in communication. Whether it then solves the problematic relationship, however, is yet to be determined.
