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W. V. O. Quine (1908-2000)

Willard Van Orman Quine, who was born in Akron, Ohio, studied mathematics and philosophy at Oberlin College. In 1930, he went to graduate school at Harvard, where he wrote a dissertation on the mathematical logic of Principia Mathematica, which was subsequently published as A System of Logic. He received his doctorate in philosophy after only two years.

Afterward, Quine was awarded a traveling scholarship and he studied in Vienna, where he met Moritz Schlick, Hans Reichenbach, and Rudolf Carnap. He also studied logic with the great Polish logicians, Tarski and Jan Lukasiewicz. In 1936, Quine returned to the United States and became an instructor at Harvard. When the United States entered World War II, he joined the navy and ended up working for radio intelligence in Washington. After the war, Quine returned to Harvard, where he became a full professor in 1948 until his retirement 30 years later. During his academic career, Quine has written many books and articles. His books include From A Logical Point of View (1953), Word and Object (1960), Ways of Paradox (1966), The Roots of Reference (1967), and Ontological Relativity (1969).




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