Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist and Other Essays

Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist and Other Essays
Author: W. V. Quine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2008-11-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0674030842

In the twenty years between his last collection of essays and his death in 2000, Quine continued his work and occasionally modified his position on central philosophical issues. This volume collects the main essays from this last, productive period of Quine’s prodigious career.

Quine in Dialogue

Quine in Dialogue
Author: Willard Van Orman Quine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2008-11-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780674030831

Quine was one of the 20th century’s great philosophers. This volume begins with a number of interviews Quine gave about his perspectives on 20th-century logic, science and philosophy, the ideas of others, and philosophy generally. Also included are his most important articles, reviews, and comments on other philosophers, from Carnap to Strawson.

From a Logical Point of View

From a Logical Point of View
Author: Willard Van Orman Quine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1980-05-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780674323513

This volume of essays has a unity and bears throughout the imprint of Quine's powerful and original mind. It is written with the felicity in the choice of words which makes everything that Quine writes a pleasure to read, and which ranks him among the best contemporary writers on abstract subjects.

Quintessence

Quintessence
Author: Willard Van Orman Quine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2008-04-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0674027558

Through the first half of the twentieth century, analytic philosophy was dominated by Russell, Wittgenstein, and Carnap. Influenced by Russell and especially by Carnap, another towering figure, Willard Van Orman Quine (1908Ð2000) emerged as the most important proponent of analytic philosophy during the second half of the century. Yet with twenty-three books and countless articles to his creditÑincluding, most famously, Word and Object and "Two Dogmas of Empiricism"ÑQuine remained a philosopher's philosopher, largely unknown to the general public. Quintessence for the first time collects Quine's classic essays (such as "Two Dogmas" and "On What There Is") in one volumeÑand thus offers readers a much-needed introduction to his general philosophy. Divided into six parts, the thirty-five selections take up analyticity and reductionism; the indeterminacy of translation of theoretical sentences and the inscrutability of reference; ontology; naturalized epistemology; philosophy of mind; and extensionalism. Representative of Quine at his best, these readings are fundamental not only to an appreciation of the philosopher and his work, but also to an understanding of the philosophical tradition that he so materially advanced.

Selected Logic Papers

Selected Logic Papers
Author: Willard Van Orman Quine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 1995
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9780674798366

For more than two generations, W. V. Quine has contributed fundamentally to the substance, the pedagogy, and the philosophy of mathematical logic. Selected Logic Papers, long out of print and now reissued with eight additional essays, includes much of the author's important work on mathematical logic and the philosophy of mathematics from the past sixty years.

From Stimulus to Science

From Stimulus to Science
Author: Willard Van Orman Quine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0674042476

W. V. Quine is one of the most eminent philosophers alive today. Now in his mid-eighties he has produced a sharp, sprightly book that encapsulates the whole of his philosophical enterprise, including his thinking on all the key components of his epistemological stance--especially the value of logic and mathematics. New readers of Quine may have to go slowly, fathoming for themselves the richness that past readers already know lies between these elegant lines. For the faithful there is much to ponder. In this short book, based on lectures delivered in Spain in 1990, Quine begins by locating his work historically. He provides a lightning tour of the history of philosophy (particularly the history of epistemology), beginning with Plato and culminating in an appreciative sketch of Carnap's philosophical ambitions and achievements. This leads, in the second chapter, to an introduction to Quine's attempt to naturalize epistemology, which emphasizes his continuities with Carnap rather than the differences between them. The next chapters develop the naturalistic story of the development of science to take account of how our conceptual apparatus is enhanced so that we can view the world as containing re-identifiable objects. Having explained the role of observation sentences in providing a checkpoint for assessing scientific theories, and having despaired of constructing an empirical criterion to determine which sentences are meaningful, Quine in the remaining chapters takes up a variety of important issues about knowledge. He concludes with an extended treatment of his views about reference and meaning and his attitudes toward psychological and modal notions. The presentation is distinctive, and the many small refinements of detail and formulation will fascinate all who know Quine's philosophy.

Methods of Logic

Methods of Logic
Author: Willard Van Orman Quine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 1982
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780674571761

This widely used textbook of modern formal logic now offers a number of new features. Incorporating updated notations, selective answers to exercises, expanded treatment of natural deduction, and new discussions of predicate-functor logic and the affinities between higher set theory and the elementary logic of terms, W. V. Quine's new edition will serve admirably for both classroom and independent use.

The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics

The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics
Author: A. W. Moore
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 691
Release: 2012
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0521616557

This book charts the evolution of metaphysics since Descartes and provides a compelling case for why metaphysics matters.

Quine’s Epistemic Norms in Practice

Quine’s Epistemic Norms in Practice
Author: Michael Shepanski
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2023-06-29
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 135030428X

In this illuminating guide to the criteria of rational theorizing, Michael Shepanski identifies, defends and applies W. V. Quine's epistemic norms – the norms that best explain Quine's decisions to accept some theories and not others. Parts I and II set out the doctrines of this epistemology, demonstrating their potential for philosophical application. Part III is a case study in which Shepanski develops a theory of the propositional attitudes by the method of formalizing inferences to behaviour. He presents critiques of popular alternative views, including foundationalism, the centrality of knowledge and Quine's own epistemological naturalism. By reassessing Quine's normative epistemology, Shepanski advances our understanding of Quine's philosophy whilst providing a guide for our own theorizing.

Theories and Things

Theories and Things
Author: Willard Van Orman Quine
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1981
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780674879263

Here are the most recent writings, some of them unpublished, of the preeminent philosopher of our time. Quine is always, whatever his subject, an elegant writer, witty, precise, and forceful. Admirers of his earlier books will welcome this new volume.