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Willard Van Orman Quine

Willard Van Orman QuineWillard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000).

Born in Akron, Ohio, Quine began his philosophical studies at Oberlin College in his native state. He later studied the foundations of mathematical logic with Alfred North Whitehead at Harvard University, where Quine himself became professor of philosophy in 1936. His contributions to the development of contemporary philosophy often involve subtle modification of the empiricist traditions of pragmatism and logical positivism.

Quine died on Christmas Day 2000.

In “Two Dogmas of Empricism” (1951), for example, Quine criticized excessive reliance on the analytic/synthetic distinction, maintaining that a whole system of beliefs must be held up for scrutiny in the light of new experience. The other papers collected in From a Logical Point of View (1953) amplify on this suggestion, developing a naturalistic and relativized epistemology. In Word and Object (1960) Quine proposed the indeterminacy of radical translation, on which a single sentence must always be taken to have more than one different meaning.

Author of the popular textbook Mathematical Logic (1940), Quine also applied the techniques of formal reasoning in The Ways of Paradox (1966), and Ontological Relativity (1969), holding that the ontological commitments of any view can be determined by examining the entities over which a formal language expressing it is employed to quantify.

More recent expositions of Quine’s philosophy appear in The Roots of Reference (1973) and Pursuit of Truth (1990). Although his own positions are commonly physicalistic, Quine’s major contribution to contemporary American philosophy has been the consistent application of analytic methods.

Table of Contents

  • 1 Major Works of Willard Van Orman Quine
    • 1.1 Related:
  • 2 Videos
  • 3 Related Products
    • 3.1 Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W. V. Quine
    • 3.2 From a Logical Point of View: Nine Logico-Philosophical Essays, Second Revised Edition
    • 3.3 Word and Object (Studies in Communication)
    • 3.4 A System of Logistic
    • 3.5 Philosophy of Logic: Second Edition
    • 3.6 Pursuit of Truth: Revised Edition
    • 3.7 The Significance of the New Logic
    • 3.8 Word and Object (The MIT Press)
    • 3.9 The Time of My Life: An Autobiography
    • 3.10 Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist and Other Essays

Major Works of Willard Van Orman Quine

– Mathematical Logic (1940)
– Two Dogmas of Empricism (1951)
– From a Logical Point of View (1953)
– Word and Object (1960)
– The Ways of Paradox (1966)
– Ontological Relativity (1969)
– The Roots of Reference (1973)
– Pursuit of Truth (1990)

Related:

  • indeterminacy of reference and translation
  • naturalized epistemology
  • extensionality thesis
  • holism
  • indiscernibility of identicals

  • Videos

  • Related Products

     
    Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W. V. Quine

    Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W. V. Quine

    • Quine, Willard Van Orman (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 432 Pages - 04/30/2008 (Publication Date) - Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press (Publisher)
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    From a Logical Point of View: Nine Logico-Philosophical Essays, Second Revised Edition

    From a Logical Point of View: Nine Logico-Philosophical Essays, Second Revised Edition

    • Harvard University Press
    • Quine, Willard Van Orman (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 200 Pages - 05/15/1980 (Publication Date) - Harvard University Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Word and Object (Studies in Communication)

    Word and Object (Studies in Communication)

    • Quine, Willard Van Orman (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 312 Pages - 11/06/2013 (Publication Date) - Martino Fine Books (Publisher)
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    A System of Logistic

    A System of Logistic

    • Hardcover Book
    • Quine, Willard van Orman (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 218 Pages - 04/16/2014 (Publication Date) - Harvard University Press (Publisher)
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    Philosophy of Logic: Second Edition

    Philosophy of Logic: Second Edition

    • Used Book in Good Condition
    • Quine, Willard Van Orman (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 128 Pages - 06/06/1986 (Publication Date) - Harvard University Press (Publisher)
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    Pursuit of Truth: Revised Edition

    Pursuit of Truth: Revised Edition

    • softcover
    • Quine, Willard Van Orman (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 128 Pages - 10/20/1992 (Publication Date) - Harvard University Press (Publisher)
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    The Significance of the New Logic

    The Significance of the New Logic

    • Hardcover Book
    • Quine, Willard Van Orman (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 200 Pages - 05/17/2018 (Publication Date) - Cambridge University Press (Publisher)
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    Word and Object (The MIT Press)

    Word and Object (The MIT Press)

    • MIT Press MA
    • Quine, Willard Van Orman (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 312 Pages - 01/25/2013 (Publication Date) - The MIT Press (Publisher)
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    The Time of My Life: An Autobiography

    The Time of My Life: An Autobiography

    • Used Book in Good Condition
    • Willard Van Orman Quine (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 384 Pages - 05/12/2000 (Publication Date) - A Bradford Book (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist and Other Essays

    Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist and Other Essays

    • New
    • Mint Condition
    • Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
    • Guaranteed packaging
    • No quibbles returns
    • Hardcover Book
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