Philosophy of Logic: Second Edition

by Willard Van Orman Quine

Overview

With his customary incisiveness, W. V. Quine presents logic as the product of two factors, truth and grammar—but argues against the doctrine that the logical truths are true because of grammar or language. Rather, in presenting a general theory of grammar and discussing the boundaries and possible extensions of logic, Quine argues that logic is not a mere matter of words.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674254565
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/06/1986
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	846 KB

About the Author

W. V. Quine was Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University. He wrote twenty-one books, thirteen of them published by Harvard University Press.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

1
Meaning and Truth

Objection to propositions


Propositions as information


Diffuseness of empirical meaning


Propositions dismissed


Truth and semantic ascent


Tokens and eternal sentences



2
Grammar

Grammar by recursion


Categories


Immanence and transcendence


Grammarian's goal reexamined


Logical grammar


Redundant devices


Names and functors


Lexicon, particle, and name


Criterion of lexicon


Time, events, adverbs


Attitudes and modality



3
Truth

Truth and satisfaction


Satisfaction by sequences


Tarski's definition of truth


Paradox in the object language


Resolution in set theory



4
Logical Truth

In terms of structure


In terms of substitution


In terms of models


Adequacy of substitution


Saving on sets


In terms of proof


In terms of grammar



5
The Scope of Logic

Affinities of identity


Identity reduced


Set theory


Set theory in sheep's clothing


Logic in wolf's clothing


Scope of the virtual theory


Simulated class quantification


Other simulated quantification


Annexes



6
Deviant Logics

Change of logic, change of subject


Logic in translation


Law of excluded middle


Debate about the dichotomy


Intuitionism


Branched quantifiers


Substitutional quantification


Its strength



7
The Ground of Logical Truth

The semblance of a theory


An untenable dualism


The place of logic



For Further Reading


Index

Editorial Reviews

Quine has few if any equals as an expositor of logic… The field in which he has made himself preeminent is that of the philosophy of logic, to which…Philosophy of Logic is a short but brilliant introduction.
-- Times Literary Supplement

By virtue of intellectual power, range and fertility of ideas and brilliance of presentation, Quine is the most distinguished and influential of living philosophers.
-- London Review of Books

Quine pursues his philosophical vision with an uncompromising consistency of purpose that makes his doctrines impossible to ignore. You either go with him or define your position in reaction to his. And this is one mark of a great philosopher.
-- Journal of Philosophy

From the Publisher