12 Modern Philosophers
Chapter One
QUINE
A. W. MOORE
1 Introduction
Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) is
considered by many to have been the greatest
analytic philosopher of the postwar period.
He was born, raised, and educated, through
to graduation, in Ohio. He did his graduate
work at Harvard University, where he wrote
a dissertation in formal logic. Most of his
early work was likewise in formal logic,
though the dissertation provided an indication of broader philosophical concerns
that would stay with him throughout his career. In 1932 he was
awarded a traveling fellowship to Europe. This gave him an opportunity to
attend meetings of the Vienna Circle, a group of between 30 and 40 thinkers
from a range of disciplines who met regularly in Vienna between the wars to
discuss philosophy. This group was unified by the aim of making philosophy
scientific, and to this end its members made special use of recent developments
in logic with which Quine was very familiar. He subsequently spent
time in Prague and Warsaw, and later described this p ... read full excerpt from 12 Modern Philosophers ebook
