The Logic of Sequences: A Generalization of Principia Mathematica (1932)
Doctoral advisor
Alfred North Whitehead
Other academic advisors
C. I. Lewis[6]
Doctoral students
David Lewis, Gilbert Harman, Dagfinn Føllesdal, Hao Wang, Burton Dreben, Charles Parsons, John Myhill, Robert McNaughton
Other notable students
Donald Davidson, Daniel Dennett
Main interests
Logic, ontology, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, set theory
Notable ideas
List
New Foundations, abstract objects, indeterminacy of translation (holophrastic indeterminacy, inscrutability of reference, ontological relativity, gavagai), radical translation, referential transparency, naturalized epistemology, meta-ontology, ontological/ideological commitment,[7] natural kind, semantic ascent, Quine's paradox, Duhem–Quine thesis, Quine–Putnam indispensability thesis, semantic holism (confirmation holism, web of belief, hold come what may), extensionalism, problem of empty names, propositional attitude, two dogmas of empiricism, principle of charity, cognitive synonymy, observational statement, mathematical quasi-empiricism, Quine–McCluskey algorithm, Quine–Morse set theory, vivid designator, predicate functor logic, Quine quotation, Quine corners, Quine atom, Plato's beard, existential generalization and universal instantiation, veridical vs. falsidical paradoxes[8]
Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox philosopher with unknown parameter "influences"
Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox philosopher with unknown parameter "influenced"
Willard Van Orman Quine (/kwaɪn/; known to his friends as "Van";[9] June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century".[10] He served as the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at Harvard University from 1956 to 1978.
Quine was a teacher of logic and set theory. Quine was famous for his position that first order logic is the only kind worthy of the name, and developed his own system of mathematics and set theory, known as New Foundations. In the philosophy of mathematics, he and his Harvard colleague Hilary Putnam developed the Quine–Putnam indispensability argument, an argument for the reality of mathematical entities.[11] He was the main proponent of the view that philosophy is not conceptual analysis, but continuous with science; the abstract branch of the empirical sciences. This led to his famous quip that "philosophy of science is philosophy enough".[12] He led a "systematic attempt to understand science from within the resources of science itself"[13] and developed an influential naturalized epistemology that tried to provide "an improved scientific explanation of how we have developed elaborate scientific theories on the basis of meager sensory input".[13] He also advocated holism in science, known as the Duhem–Quine thesis.
His major writings include the papers "On What There Is" (1948), which elucidated Bertrand Russell's theory of descriptions and contains Quine's famous dictum of ontological commitment, "To be is to be the value of a variable", and "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (1951), which attacked the traditional analytic-synthetic distinction and reductionism, undermining the then-popular logical positivism, advocating instead a form of semantic holism and ontological relativity. They also include the books The Web of Belief (1970), which advocates a kind of coherentism, and Word and Object (1960), which further developed these positions and introduced Quine's famous indeterminacy of translation thesis, advocating a behaviorist theory of meaning.
^Cite error: The named reference SEP-Nom was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Scientific Realism and Antirealism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^"Pragmatism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Poston, Ted. "Foundationalism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Behaviorism". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^ abHunter, Bruce (2021). "Clarence Irving Lewis". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
^Willard Van Orman Quine (1983). "Chapter 22: Ontology and ideology revisited". Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist: And Other Essays. Harvard University Press. pp. 315 ff. ISBN 0674030842.
^Quine, W. V. (1966). "The Ways of Paradox". The Ways of Paradox, and Other Essays. New York: Random House.
^O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (October 2003), "Willard Van Orman Quine", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
^Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (December 29, 2000). "W. V. Quine, Philosopher Who Analyzed Language and Reality, Dies at 92". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
^Colyvan, Mark, "Indispensability Arguments in the Philosophy of Mathematics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
^Quine, W. V. (August 28, 2023). "Mr. Strawson on Logical Theory". Mind. 62 (248): 433–451. JSTOR 2251091.
^ ab"Quine, Willard Van Orman: Philosophy of Science". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009.
and 21 Related for: Willard Van Orman Quine information
WillardVanOrmanQuine (/kwaɪn/; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic...
paradox, in logic Quine (surname), people with the surname WillardVanOrmanQuine (1908–2000), American philosopher and logician Quine–McCluskey algorithm...
inscrutability) is a thesis by 20th century analytic philosopher WillardVanOrmanQuine in his book Word and Object. The main claim of this theory is that...
kinds, but a means to create instrumental understanding. In 1969, WillardVanOrmanQuine brought the term "natural kind" into contemporary analytic philosophy...
"Two Dogmas of Empiricism" is a paper by analytic philosopher WillardVanOrmanQuine published in 1951. According to University of Sydney professor of...
Logico-Philosophicus), the Vienna Circle, logical positivists, and WillardVanOrmanQuine. In the West, inquiry into language stretches back to the 5th century...
well-known Geach–Kaplan sentence: Some critics admire only one another. WillardVanOrmanQuine provided an early and influential formulation of ontological commitment:...
of statements (a whole theory) can be so. It is attributed to WillardVanOrmanQuine who motivated his holism through extending Pierre Duhem's problem...
Word and Object is a 1960 work by the philosopher WillardVanOrmanQuine, in which the author expands upon the line of thought of his earlier writings...
"being identical to Angela Merkel" is understood as a general term. WillardVanOrmanQuine (1908–2000) defends a different position by giving primacy to singular...
that all emeralds are grue" Goodman’s original definition of grue WillardVanOrmanQuine (1970). "Natural Kinds" (PDF). In Nicholas Rescher; et al. (eds...
New Foundations (NF) is an axiomatic set theory, conceived by WillardVanOrmanQuine as a simplification of the theory of types of Principia Mathematica...
matrices containing the word "Caesar" than does any other individual. WillardVanOrmanQuine and Donald Davidson provide other formulations of the principle...
Classification”, Synthese, 27: 417–37. Quine, W.V., 1951, “Two dogmas of empiricism”, reprinted in W.V. Quine, 1953, From a logical point of view, Cambridge:...
set. Quine atoms (named after WillardVanOrmanQuine) are sets that only contain themselves, that is, sets that satisfy the formula x = {x}. Quine atoms...
foundationalism fell into decline – largely due to the influence of WillardVanOrmanQuine, whose ontological relativity found any belief networked[clarification...
Bertrand Russell, WillardVanOrmanQuine, the logical positivists, Timothy Williamson, Earl Conee and Richard Feldman. Russell, Quine and the logical positivists...
Global Information