• Quine later referred to the situation of the linguist that he describes in §I as “radical translation” and its upshot as the “indeterminacy of reference.” Although the discussion may seem an introductory device here, it will be more significant later in the paper. Quine placed significantly more weight on it in Word and Object, and it became still more significant in a later paper from which we will discuss selections next time.

• The description of language learning that Quine gives in §II is something else he developed further in later work. Here it serves him mainly as a device for showing the central role of individuation in reference (something he will be express later by way of the slogan “No entity without identity”).

• Quine’s account of series of “phases” of language learning in §III serves a function not unlike that of Wittgenstein’s series of language games in the Brown Book: both serve to highlight different aspects and elements of language. By the end, you should also notice connections between Quine’s discussion here and his talk of “posits” at the end of “Two Dogmas.”

At the end of the section, Quine mentions a figure of speech due to Otto Neurath that has become quite well known (thanks largely to Quine). Neurath states it in a single sentence:

Wie Schiffer sind wir, die ihr Schiff auf offener See umbauen mussen, ohne es jemals in einem Dock zerlegen und aus besten Bestandteilen neu errichten zu können. [We are like sailors who must rebuild their ship at sea, without ever being able to dismantle it in dock and build it anew from the best parts.]

This figure is naturally contrasted with one in the Discourse on Method (pt. 2), where Descartes compares his philosophical activity to rebuilding a house from its foundations.