Quotessence
Home / Authors / Willard Van Orman Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllLanguageObjectsMayMenLogicScienceTheoryDoctrinePhilosophyCommon

Famous Willard Van Orman Quine Quotes

“Just as the introduction of the irrational numbers ... is a convenient myth [which] simplifies the laws of arithmetic ... so physical objects are postulated entities which round out and simplify our account of the flux of existence... The conceptional scheme of physical objects is [likewise] a convenient myth, simpler than the literal truth and yet containing that literal truth as a scattered part.”

LawNumbersExistenceObjectsAccountsMathematicsRoundsMathMythMathematicalSchemesEntityIrrationalIntroductionConvenientLiteralSimplifyArithmeticContainingFluxIrrational Numbers
Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
Create image

“If pressed to supplement Tweedledee's ostensive definition of logic with a discursive definition of the same subject, I would say that logic is the systematic study of the logical truths. Pressed further, I would say that a sentence is logically true if all sentences with its grammatical structure are true. Pressed further still, I would say to read this book.”

IfsStillsBookStudySubjectsLogicStructureDefinitionsSentencesLogicalSystematicSupplements
Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
Create image

“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”

MenMadeMatterBeliefForceConditionsFiguresFieldsPureLogicMathematicsEdgesPhysicsBoundariesFabricCasualGeographyTotalityGeography And History
Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
Create image