I have not infrequently come across the expression "Pickwickian sense".
Of course, I have tried to search on the web, but generally the explanations I have found do not fit well into the context concerned. For example, the online Merriam-Webster offers the following description:
Definition of Pickwickian
1
: marked by simplicity and generosity
2
: intended or taken in a sense other than the obvious or literal one
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Pickwickian)
I feel, however, that the e.g. text below says something more subtle than
the one in which the expression interpreted in this way:
[…] I had the opportunity to suggest to Quine
that this strong version of revisability is rather
hard to take, especially when applied to laws of logic.
Quine responded as follows: "Well, I think I rather agree. I think nowadays it seems to me at best an uninteresting legalism".The expression "uninteresting legalism" is Quine's marker for
earlier views that he has come to view as – if not altogether wrong,
and perhaps even in some Pickwickian sense correct – needlessly
extreme.
(Fogelin: Aspects of Quine's Naturalized Epistemology
In: The Cambridge Companion to QUINE, Edited by
Roger F. Gibson Jr., p.32)
Best Answer
The Unabridged version of Merriam-Webster expands on the definition of Pickwickian that you give (emphasis mine):
In your quote, Pickwickian is used to refer to Quine's earlier views that, "if not altogether wrong," had, in some limited or whimsical sense, some degree of correctness.