"Philosophy of Science is Philosophy Enough"- Willard Van Orman Quine (27 June 1908 - 25 December 2000)
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Born in Akron, Ohio
"Van" Quine, as he was known to his friends was born in Akron to Cloyd, a tire mold entrepreneur, and Harriet, a schoolteacher. He had one older brother, Robert. -
Relevant Education
1930- B.A. (Mathematics) Oberlin College;
1932- Ph.D. (Philospophy), Harvard University
1933-1937- Harvard Junior Fellow Image: Statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard. -
Works on Logic (1934-1970)
1) Quine, W. V.; "A System of Logistic" (1934);
2) Quine, W. V.; "Mathematical Logic" (1940, Reprint 1951)
3) Quine, W. V.; "Elementary Logic" (1941, Reprint 1980)
4) Quine, W. V.; "Methods of Logic" (1950, Reprint 1982)
5) Quine, W. V.; "From a Logical Point of View" (1953)
6) Quine, W. V.; "The Philosophy of Logic" (1970) -
Areas of Work
While his Doctorate was in Philosophy, Quine had little use for teaching philosophy courses. My grandfather had him for an instructor in logic when he was attending Harvard after World War II. Many of Quine's classroom teachings ended up in his books, including a copy of "Methods of Logic" that my grandfather said sounded just like his lectures. Quine's primary areas of work were in Logic and Set Theory. He also took time to address issues in metaphysics and normative epistemology. -
World War II
Beginning in 1942, Quine served as an activated Naval Reserve officer in cryptology, focusing on German submarine messages sent by ENIGMA coding machines. Before the end of the war in 1945, he held the rank of Lieutenant Commander. (Image: German U-Boat ENIGMA coding machine) -
Set Theory
Quine believed heavily that mathematics required "Set Theory", which he maintained was a different animal than logic. Set Theory addresses collections of objects, though is most often applied to mathematics. He shifted between three versions of Set Theory. The first is commonly called New Foundations. His work "Mathematical Logic" was updated to include classes of set theory. "Set Theory and Its Logic" boiled away classes and reduced it down to a single scheme axiom -
And now for our Video Interlude (2018)
For those who need some introduction into Set Theory, I provide a link to Discrete Mathematics' "Introduction to Set Theory", who can address this field significantly better than I can! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCZmonnv3fM -
The Modern Quine
Douglas Hofstadter tagged computer programs that "self-replicate", that is, produces its own source code as its only output as a "quine", whose study of indirect self-reference included "Quine's Paradox": "Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation. I don't know about you, but that makes my brain hurt just reading it. -
The End Days
Quine died on 25 December 2000 in Boston, not far from his beloved Harvard University at age 92. At the time, he was attempting to make revisions to his work "Word and Objects", but this never occurred because his short term memory made it difficult to follow arguments. He knew what was happening, however, as he commented to fellow philosopher Morton White, "I do not remember what my illness is called, Althusser or Alzheimer, but since I cannot remember it, it must be Alzheimer." He was 92.
