“We cannot stem linguistic change, but we can drag our feet. If each of us were to defy Alexander Pope and be the last to lay the old aside, it might not be a better world, but it would be a lovelier language.” IfsWorldMightWould BeLastsLanguageFeetLaysDragStemPope Book:Quiddities Source: Quiddities
“The variables of quantification, 'something,' 'nothing,' 'everything,' range over our whole ontology, whatever it may be; and we are convicted of a particular ontological presupposition if, and only if, the alleged presuppositum has to be reckoned among the entities over which our variables range in order to render one of our affirmations true.” IfsMayWholeOrderExistenceParticularRangeEntityAffirmationVariablesOntologyIfs And Book:Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine Source: Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine
“If there is a case for mental events and mental states, it must be that the positing of them, like the positing of molecules, hassome indirect systematic efficacy in the development of theory.” IfsStatesCasesEventsTheoryDevelopmentSystematicMoleculesEfficacyIndirect Book:Word and Object Source: Word and Object
“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
