Word and Object.

Word and Object.
Quine, W. V. (1960)
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Nominator's statement: An important book about the relation between our language and the world. Includes the famous "Gavagai" story.

comments

This is an important book, but it is very difficult to conceive of Quine as a Cognitive Scientist, given his very anti-psychological stance!
It is true that this book employs a behavioralist, externalist approach to the study of language. However, Quine probably was not a behaviorist, or if he was, he was at most a methodological behaviorist. Furthermore, the study of behavior, whether done from a behaviorist or anti-behaviorist approach, is essential to if not the core of psychology, and psychology is the core of cognitive science. Surely B. F. Skinner is in the top 100.

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