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Introducing W. V. Quine
W. V. Quine born on June 25, 1908 as Willard Van Orman Quine and known to intimates as "Van". Van was an American philosopher and in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. He is perhaps best known for his arguments against Logical Empiricism (in particular, against its use of the analytic-synthetic distinction). He was 92 years old when he died on December 25, 2000. -
Early Years
Quine grew up in Akron, Ohio, where he lived with his parents and older brother Robert Cloyd. His father, Cloyd Robert, was a manufacturing entrepreneur (founder of the Akron Equipment Company, which produced tire molds) and his mother, Harriett E., was a schoolteacher and later a housewife. He went to school attended Oberlin College, Ohio; B.A, major in Mathematics with honors reading in mathematical philosophy. -
Van Begins
After his four years at attended Oberlin College, Ohio Van recieved his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University. Around this time his thesis supervisor was Alfred North Whitehead. Being that Van was appointed as a Harvard Junior Fellow he didn't have to teach for the four years there. During is acedemic year Van traveled to Europe thanks to a Sheldon fellowship, meeting Polish logicians and members of the Vienna Circle. -
The Start Of Theory
In 1933 for next 3 years as Junior Fellow in Harvard’s newly-formed Society of Fellows; /worked chiefly on logic and set theory. Within in those years he published A System of Logistic in 1934. -
Doing Service
Van served as a naval intelligence officer in Washington, D.C. Promoted to full professor at Harvard in 1948, he remained there until 1978, when he retired. -
More On Van
By the 50's he had developed a comprehensive and systematic philosophical outlook that was naturalistic, empiricist, and behaviourist. Conceiving of philosophy as an extension of science, he rejected epistemological foundationalism, the attempt to ground knowledge of the external world in allegedly transcendent and self-validating mental experience. -
Timeline Of His Publications
1940: published Mathematical Logic. 1953: published From a Logical Point of View. 1960: published Word and Object. 1963: published Set Theory and its Logic. 1966: published Ways of Paradox. 1969: published Ontological Relativity and Other Essays. 1974: published The Roots of Reference. 1981: published Theories and Things. 1990: published Pursuit of Truth. 1995: published From Stimulus to Science. -
Clip Of Van
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Contribution to Science
He made significant contributions to many areas of philosophy, including philosophy of language, logic, epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind/psychology (behaviorism). However, he is best known for his rejection of the analytic/synthetic distinction. -