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Earned Bachelors Degree with Oberlin College
Quine earned his Bachelors degree in mathematics with honors reading in mathematical philosophy with Oberlin College in Ohio. While he was at Oberlin College, he read the works of Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead. He would eventually meet them both when he went off and attended Harvard University. -
Earned Ph.D. in Philosophy at Harvard University
Quine earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy in two years. He was supervised by Professor Whitehead at Harvard University. -
Early Work and Contributions
As Quine moved up the teaching latter at Harvard. He contributed tons of work to the Philosophy community. He had an important role in the significant development in the mathematical area of set theory, in which you can find in his published papers "A System of Logic", "New Foundations of Mathematical Logic", "Mathematical Logic", and "Methods of Logic". -
From Teacher to Professor
Professor Quine was a teacher, faculty instructor, associate Professor, then a Professor at Harvard from 1936 to 1978. -
Quine Publishes "Word and Object"
In 1960, Professor Quine published "Word And Object". This paper was part of the ongoing argument of translation of word meaning. He developed a thesis around the indeterminacy translation regarding radical translation. He believed that there are different ways a person could break down a sentence and that there is more that one way of determining the meaning of words. Work Cited Quine, Willard V. Word and Object. MIT Press, 1964. -
Quine Paradox
Quine's Paradox was inspired by the type theory by Bertrand Russell. The motivation Quine had to adapting to his Paradox was the "Liar Paradox". The Liar Paradox outlined that if a sentence is false, the next sentence is true. Quine Paradox concerns truth values, were for if it is false, what it states is in fact true. Below, is a video of Professor Quine explaining his view on Truth.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyZOltp5lE) -
Quine Published “Epistemology Naturalized”
In 1969, Professor Quine published Ontological Relativity (1968) and Other Essays. His work covered the obsession of how we humans come to have knowledge of our world. His work in this field goes from language use being observable in the scientific community, to how knowledge is connected to human nerves. Work Cited Quine, W. V. “Ontological Relativity.” The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 65, no. 7, The Journal of Philosophy, Inc., Apr. 1968, pp. 185–212, doi:10.2307/2024305. -
Professor Quine died at 92
Professor Quine died in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a Professor of tackling the most difficult aspects of Language and Reality. In my opinion, he was a man of ambition and motivation. -
Sources for Timeline
Hylton, Peter, and Gary Kemp. “Willard Van Orman Quine.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 14 Feb. 2019, plato.stanford.edu/entries/quine/#QuinLifeWork. Willard Van Orman Quine.” Willard Van Orman Quine > By Individual Philosopher > Philosophy, www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_quine.html.
