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Willard van Orman QuineAmerican philosopher, logician and mathematician
Date of Birth: 25.06.1908
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Biography of Willard Van Orman Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine was an American philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was born on June 25, 1908, in Akron, Ohio. Quine obtained his education at Oberlin College and Harvard University. He also studied under R. Carnap in Prague and had meetings with A. Tarski in Warsaw. In 1932, he received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard, presenting a dissertation on logic under the guidance of A.N. Whitehead.
Quine embarked on a long career as a philosophy professor in 1936. From 1948 to 1978, he held the position of professor of philosophy at Harvard University. Quine utilized the advancements in contemporary logic to clarify and resolve traditional philosophical problems, particularly in the ontological realm, which pertains to questions such as "What kinds of things exist?"
According to Quine, philosophers should prefer "desert landscapes" and only allow the existence of objects when it is absolutely necessary. The test of necessity that he proposes is deceptively simple: a thing exists if and only if the best theory, in its most economical formulation, asserts its existence. As Quine believes that the best theory must include at least physical objects, he aims to prove that they are the only objects required by the best theory.
From Quine's perspective, the main obstacle to such proof is that mathematics necessitates the existence of abstract entities (e.g., numbers or sets). However, he does not see a way to reduce or eliminate such entities. Quine is also known for his criticism of the claim that some truths are "analytic" (i.e., true by virtue of the meanings of the expressions involved). The existence of such truths is assumed by most philosophers of ordinary language and many empiricist conceptions of logic and mathematics. Quine contends that the concept of meaning itself is hopelessly entangled and that even so-called "analytic truths," including the laws of logic, are subject to revision in the face of new experiences. This assertion is closely tied to Quine's holism – his thesis that theories can only be tested as wholes.
Among Quine's major works are "Mathematical Logic" (1940), "From a Logical Point of View" (1953), "Word and Object" (1960), "Ontological Relativity and Other Essays" (1969), "Philosophy of Logic" (1970), "The Roots of Reference" (1974), and "The Time of My Life: An Autobiography" (1985).