Willard Van Orman Quine Quotes

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• Logic chases truth up the tree of grammar.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Tree, Logic, Grammar

  Willard Van Orman Quine (1986). “Philosophy of Logic”, p.35, Harvard University Press

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• The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Men, Geography And History, Fabric

  "Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine".

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• Necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Way

  "The Ways of Paradox and other Essays". Book by Willard Van Orman Quine, 1966.

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• Science is not a substitute for common sense, but an extension of it.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Science, Common Sense, Substitutes

  Willard Van Orman Quine (1976). “The Ways of Paradox, and Other Essays”, p.229, Harvard University Press

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• Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Yield, Quotations, Falsehood

  "The Ways of Paradox and other Essays (The Ways of Paradox)". Book by Willard Van Orman Quine, 1966.

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• We must not leap to the fatalistic conclusion that we are stuck with the conceptual scheme that we grew up in. We can change it, bit by bit, plank by plank, though meanwhile there is nothing to carry us along but the evolving conceptual scheme itself. The philosopher's task was well compared by Neurath to that of a mariner who must rebuild his ship on the open sea.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Philosophical, Sea, Ships

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• To be is to be the value of a variable.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Good Life, Variables, Values

  Journal of Philosophy, 21 Dec. 1939

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• To define an expression is, paradoxically speaking, to explain how to get along without it. To define is to eliminate.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Expression

  1987 Quiddities,'Definition'.

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• My position is a naturalistic one; I see philosophy not as an a priori propaedeutic or groundwork for science, but as continuous with science. I see philosophy and science as in the same boat--a boat which, to revert to Neurath's figure as I so often do, we can rebuild only at sea while staying afloat in it. There is no external vantage point, no first philosophy.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Sea

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• One man's observation is another man's closed book or flight of fancy.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Book, Men, Fancy

  "First Philosophy: Knowledge and Reality: Fundamental Problems and Readings in Philosophy". Book by Andrew Bailey (p. 300), August 6, 2004.

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• Irrefragability, thy name is mathematics.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Names, Mathematics

  Willard Van Orman Quine (1976). “The Ways of Paradox, and Other Essays”, p.22, Harvard University Press

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• I have been accused of denying consciousness but I am not conscious of having done so.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Done, Consciousness, Accused

  W. V. QUINE, Willard Van Orman Quine (1987). “Quiddities”, p.132, Harvard University Press

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• The word 'definition' has come to have a dangerously reassuring sound, owing no doubt to its frequent occurrence in logical and mathematical writings.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Writing, Doubt, Sound

  Willard Van Orman Quine (1961). “From a Logical Point of View: 9 Logico-philosophical Essays”, p.26, Harvard University Press

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• Language is a social art.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Art, Language, Social

  Willard Van Orman Quine, Dagfinn Føllesdal, Douglas B. Quine (2008). “Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist: And Other Essays”, p.289, Harvard University Press

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• Wyman's overpopulated universe is in many ways unlovely. It offends the aesthetic sense of us who have a taste for desert landscapes.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Desert, Landscape, Way

  Willard Van Orman Quine, Roger F. Gibson (2004). “Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine”, p.179, Harvard University Press

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• Creatures inveterately wrong in their inductions have a pathetic but praise-worthy tendency to die before reproducing their kind.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Kind, Praise, Tendencies

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• Nonbeing must in some sense be, otherwise what is it that there is not? This tangled doctrine might be nicknamed Plato's beard; historically it has proved tough, frequently dulling the edge of Occam's razor.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Plato, Tangled, Might

  Willard Van Orman Quine, Roger F. Gibson (2004). “Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine”, p.177, Harvard University Press

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• One man's antinomy is another man's falsidical paradox, give or take a couple of thousand years.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Couple, Men, Years

  Willard Van Orman Quine (1976). “The Ways of Paradox, and Other Essays”, p.9, Harvard University Press

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• It is within science itself, and not in some prior philosophy, that reality is to be identified and described.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Philosophy, Reality

  W. V. Quine, Willard Van Orman Quine (1981). “Theories and Things”, p.21, Harvard University Press

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• Implication is thus the very texture of our web of belief, and logic is the theory that traces it.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Texture, Belief, Logic

  "The web of belief". Book by Willard Van Orman Quine, 1970.

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• Unscientific man is beset by a deplorable desire to have been right. The scientist is distinguished by a desire to be right.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Men, Desire, Scientist

  Willard Van Orman Quine (1987). “Quiddities: an intermittently philosophical dictionary”, Belknap Press

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• A curious thing about the ontological problem is its simplicity. It can be put into three Anglo-Saxon monosyllables: 'What is there?' It can be answered, moreover, in a word--'Everything'--and everyone will accept this answer as true.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Simplicity, Three, Answers

  Willard Van Orman Quine, Roger F. Gibson (2004). “Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine”, p.177, Harvard University Press

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• We do not learn first what to talk about and then what to say about it.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Firsts

  Willard Van Orman Quine, Patricia S. Churchland, Dagfinn Føllesdal (2013). “Word and Object”, p.15, MIT Press

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• Our talk of external things, our very notion of things, is just a conceptual apparatus that helps us to foresee and control the triggerings of our sensory receptors in the light of previous triggering of our sensory receptors.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Light, Perception, Helping

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• Confusion of sign and object is original sin coeval with the word.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Confusion, Sin, Objects

  Willard Van Orman Quine, Roger F. Gibson (2004). “Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine”, p.101, Harvard University Press

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