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