Quine's argument “from above”

Abstract

Up until the early 1970s, Quine argued that the underdetermination of theories by observations is a reason for the indeterminacy of translation. This is the so-called argument "from above," which is still today often thought of as Quine's main reason for the thesis. His 1975 analysis of underdetermination, however, rendered that argument invalid. This paper explains why.