The Roots of Reference is a 1974 book by the philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine, in which the author expands on his earlier concepts about the inscrutability of reference and examines problems with traditional empiricism, arguing for a naturalized epistemology based on holism.

[1] Quine's draft was initially developed in 1970 as an expansion of ideas presented in Word and Object (1960) about language acquisition.

[2] The book is divided into three sections, one for each of the three Paul Carus Lectures he originally gave in 1971 at the American Philosophical Association conference.

Quine is interested in explaining the "psychogenesis of reference," constructing how sensory perception moves from the ability to describe concrete objects to abstract objects through a series of increasingly complex ways of referring to things.

"[4] Because it was created for the Carus Lectures, Quine states his ontological position in a "delightfully relaxed, good-humored style.