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Birth: June 25, 1908
Willard Van Orman Quine was born on June 25, 1908, in Akron, Ohio. Hylton, Peter and Gary Kemp, "Willard Van Orman Quine", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/quine/. -
Education and Beyond: 1926- 1936
From 1926-1930, Quine attended Oberlin College (in Ohio) and obtained his B.A. in Mathematics. He then attended Harvard University to complete his Ph.D. in Philosophy from 1930-1932. After this, he spent time traveling in Europe before starting work as a Junior Fellow at Harvard in 1933. Hylton, Peter and Gary Kemp, "Willard Van Orman Quine", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/quine/. -
Early Publications and Career: 1934-1940
In 1934, Quine published a revised version of his dissertation entitled "A System of Logistic." Then he published "Mathematical Logic" in 1940 after he began teaching at Harvard in 1936. Hylton, Peter and Gary Kemp, "Willard Van Orman Quine", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/quine/ -
Period: to
Harvard Career
Quine worked at Harvard from 1936, was promoted to professor in 1948, and continued to teach there until 1978 when he retired. He had a brief absence from 1942 to 1945, while he served as a naval intelligence officer. Duignan, Brian. "Willard Van Orman Quine". Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Dec. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Willard-Van-Orman-Quine
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"Two Dogmas of Empiricism": 1951
In 1951, W.V. Quine published "Two Dogmas of Empiricism," in which he surpassed even the logical empiricists by saying that even "logic and maths, like factual statements, are open to revision in the light of experience." (O'Grady, Jane) O'Grady, Jane. "Willard Van Orman Quine: Philosopher whose revolutionary ideas challenged the accepted way we look at ourselves and our universe." The Guardian, Fri 29 Dec 2000 https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/dec/30/guardianobituaries. -
Quine's Main Beliefs
Quine believed in Naturalism, which he defined as “the recognition that it is within science itself, and not in some prior philosophy, that reality is to be identified and described”
He believed sociology, psychology, economics, and history were all part of science- and that scientific knowledge was no different from any other kind of knowledge of our world. W.V. Quine Hylton, Peter and Gary Kemp, "Willard Van Orman Quine", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy -
Major Works: 1960 +
"Word and Object" (1960), "The Roots of Reference" (1974), and "The Time of My Life" (1985), his autobiography, are among his most famous books. Duignan, Brian. "Willard Van Orman Quine". Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Dec. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Willard-Van-Orman-Quine
Accessed 2 March 2021 -
Video Interview: 1977
Video interview with W.V. Quine, conducted by Brian Magee in 1977:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2fLyvsHHaQ -
Death: December 25, 2000
W. V. Quine died December 25, 2000, in Boston, Massachusetts.
