Quine's realism and pragmatism : r/askphilosophy

/r/askphilosophy aims to provide serious, well-researched answers to philosophical questions. how does Quine's pragmatism relate to his realism? in two dogmas Quine argues that differing webs of belief can cope with the same set of empirical data, so the only way to decide between such webs is on pragmatic grounds. but why then ontological realism? is it because the only way to make sense of natural and scientific language is to interpret it with certain ontological commitments? so in my belief-web i affirm p, and that commits me to the existence of x, and 'commitment to x' only makes sense in a realist framework. this story seems consistent to me, but i think some mayor epistemic issues are going to arise (ultimately, one's realist beliefs are grounded in pragmatic considerations), so i wonder if this is really Quine's position. is it because the only way to make sense of natural and scientific language is to interpret it with certain ontological commitments? Yup. If you read On What

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