No9.5的一道题 求教了！

NightzzUID: 3320648

SECTION B
Historically, a cornerstone of classical empiricism has been the notion that every true generalization must be confirmable by specific observations. In classical empiricism, the truth of “All balls are red,” for example, is assessed by inspecting balls; any observation of a non red ball refutes unequivocally the proposed generalization.
For W. V. O. Quine, however, this constitutes an overly “narrow” conception of empiricism. “All balls are red,” he maintains, forms one strand within an entire web of statements (our knowledge); individual observations can be referred only to this web as a whole. As new observations are collected, he explains, they must be integrated into the web. Problems occur only if a contradiction develops between a new observation, say, “That ball is blue,” and the preexisting statements. In that case, he argues, any statement or combination of statements (not merely the “offending” generalization, as in classical empiricism) can be altered to achieve the fundamental requirement, a system free of contradictions, even if, in some cases, the alteration consists of labeling the new observation a “hallucination.”
17.        The author of the passage is primarily concerned with presenting
(A) criticisms of Quine’s views on the proper conceptualization of empiricism
(B) evidence to support Quine’s claims about the problems inherent in classical empiricism
(C) an account of Quine’s counterproposal to one of the traditional assumptions of classical empiricism
(D) an overview of classical empiricism and its contributions to Quine’s alternate understanding of empiricism
(E) a history of classical empiricism and Quine’s reservations about it
18.        According to Quine’s conception of empiricism, if a new observation were to contradict some statement already within our system of knowledge, which of the following would be true?
(A) The new observation would be rejected as untrue.
(B) Both the observation and the statement in our system that it contradicted would be discarded.
(C) New observations would be added to our web of statements in order to expand our system of knowledge.
(D) The observation or some part of our web of statements would need to be adjusted to resolve the contradiction.
(E) An entirely new field of knowledge would be created.
19.        As described in the passage, Quine’s specific argument against classical empiricism would be most strengthened if he did which of the following?
(A) Provided evidence that many observations are actually hallucinations.
(B) Explained why new observations often invalidate preexisting generalizations.
(C) Challenged the mechanism by which specific generalizations are derived from collections of particular observations.
(D) Mentioned other critics of classical empiricism and the substance of their approaches.
(E) Gave an example of a specific generalization that has not been invalidated despite a contrary observation.
20.        It can be inferred from the passage that Quine considers classical empiricism to be “overly ‘narrow’ ” (lines 7-8) for which of the following reasons?
I.        Classical empiricism requires that our system of generalizations be free of contradictions.
II.        Classical empiricism demands that in the case of a contradiction between an individual observation and a generalization, the generalization must be abandoned.
III.        Classical empiricism asserts that every observation will either confirm an existing generalization or initiate a new generalization.
(A) II only
(B) I and II only
(C) I and III only
(D) II and III only

第20题的A选项不太明白，答案没选它。但是文中的意思不就是说老观点是如果有一个相反的观察结果，generalization就错了，这难道不是要求generalization free of contradiction吗？

saber恩叶UID: 3346891

In that case, he argues, any statement or combination of statements (not merely the “offending” generalization, as in classical empiricism) can be altered to achieve the fundamental requirement, a system free of contradictions, even if, in some cases, the alteration consists of labeling the new observation a “hallucination.”
generalization free of contradiction是那个W.V.Q.Quine的观点，不是classical empiricism的

NightzzUID: 3320648

saber恩叶 发表于 2012-10-3 22:43
In that case, he argues, any statement or combination of statements (not merely the “offending” ge ...

谢谢了！看来今天真是做题做懵了。。

saber恩叶UID: 3346891

Nightzz 发表于 2012-10-3 22:48
谢谢了！看来今天真是做题做懵了。。

没事，经常做懵，而且我到现在都不知道这篇文章究竟在干什么，讲的太深邃了。。。。。。。

NightzzUID: 3320648

saber恩叶 发表于 2012-10-3 22:51
没事，经常做懵，而且我到现在都不知道这篇文章究竟在干什么，讲的太深邃了。。。。。。。

这篇文章后来我明白了，做的时候也挺晕乎的就知道是关于经验主义的两种意见。应该是讲原来的观点认为只要有任何与归纳出的东西违背的地方出现，那么这种归纳就作废。这哥们觉得不能这么狠，可以把这种又矛盾冲突的不同点包容进来，不断完善我们的经验体系。