William Van Orman Quine

Van Is born

Jun 25, 1908

Willard Van Orman Quine was born in Akron, Ohio on June 25th, 1908. His parents were Cloyd Robert Quine a manufacturing entrepreneur and Harriett E. Quine a school teacher. Most of his life he preferred to go by the first name Van. He was the youngest son in the family. It was said that even at an early age he was troubled by philosophical questions like the idea of a Heaven and a Hell.

Begins graduate school

1930

Quine attended Oberlin College and received his Bachelor of Arts in mathematics in 1930. By 1932 he had completed his Ph. D in Philosophy from Harvard University. Shortly after he was accepted for fellow ship at Harvard and sent overseas to meet up with logicians from all over the world. One of the most predominate of these was Alfred Tarski who later escaped World War II by coming to the U.S.

A System of Logic

1934

In 1934 Quine published “A System of Logic”. This was his first published work. In this work, he adds to the “Mathematical Set Theory”. This theory explains the binary relation between two sets of number. It is on the surface a simple concept but develops into very complicated math as it progresses.

World War II

1942

1942-1945 During World War II, Quine served in the U.S. Navy as an intelligence officer. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Due to his brilliance and fluency in multiple languages, he primarily worked to decode and translate intercepted enemy messages.

From a Logical Point

1953

In 1953 he published “From a Logical Point”. In this work, Quine uses nine essays to argue the use of specific words and language. Essentially arguing semantics with other Philosophers. He outright attacks analytical philosophy.

Ways of Paradox

1966

In 1966 Quine published “Ways of Paradox”. Quine utilizes eight separate essays to expound on the idea of systematic logic. If “From a Logical Point” was directed at the philosophers of the time, then this work was directed to everyone. Quine breaks down his point of view of systematic Logic to the point where non philosophers can understand it.

From Stimulus to Science

1995

In 1995 he published “From Stimulus to Science”. This was Quines final published work. In it he broadly covers his entire philosophical career. He spends most of the work naturalizing epistemology or the theory of knowledge. He also discusses the naturalistic development of science from the scope of the philosophy of logic.

Quine legacy

Dec 25, 2000

W.V. Quine died on December 25th 2000. He is known by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. I only utilized a few of his published works. The amount of information, theories, and processes he contributed to math and science are vast and extensive. He was hyper focused on the idea that words have meaning and spent much of his time taking apart the language used in Philosophy to replace it with a more common sense but exact language.