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{{Infobox philosopher|region=[[Western philosophy]]|era=[[20th-century philosophy]]|image=Willard Van Orman Quine on Bluenose II in Halifax NS harbor 1980.jpg|caption=Quine in 1980|name=Willard Van Orman Quine|birth_date={{birth date|mf=yes|1908|6|25}}|birth_place=[[Akron, Ohio]], U.S.|death_date={{death date and age|mf=yes|2000|12|25|1908|6|25}}|death_place=[[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], U.S.|spouse={{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Naomi Clayton|1932|1947|end=div}}
* {{marriage|Marjorie Boynton|1948|1998|end=died}}
}}|education=[[Oberlin College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Harvard University]] ([[PhD]])|institutions=[[Harvard University]]|school_tradition=[[Analytic philosophy|Analytic]]<br />[[Mathematical nominalism]] (1947<ref name="SEP-Nom">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Nominalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/nominalism-mathematics/ |last=Bueno |first=Otávio |date=2020 |edition=Fall 2020}}</ref><br />[[Mathematical quasi-empiricism]] (1960)<br />[[Immanent realism]]<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Scientific Realism and Antirealism |encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://iep.utm.edu/scientific-realism-antirealism/ |language=en-US}}</ref><br />[[Neopragmatism]]<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Pragmatism |encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://iep.utm.edu/pragmati/ |language=en-US}}</ref><br />[[Empiricism]]<br>[[Anti-foundationalism]]<ref name="Poston">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Foundationalism |encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://iep.utm.edu/foundationalism-in-epistemology/ |last=Poston |first=Ted |language=en-US}}</ref><br />[[Logical behaviorism]]<ref>{{cite SEP |url-id=behaviorism |title=Behaviorism}}</ref>|main_interests=[[Logic]], [[ontology]], [[epistemology]], [[philosophy of language]], [[philosophy of mind]], [[philosophy of mathematics]], [[philosophy of science]], [[set theory]]|notable_ideas={{collapsible list|
[[New Foundations]], [[abstract objects]], [[indeterminacy of translation]] ([[holophrastic indeterminacy]], [[inscrutability of reference]], [[ontological relativity]], ''[[gavagai]]''), [[radical translation]], [[referential transparency]], [[naturalized epistemology]], [[meta-ontology]], [[ontological commitment|ontological]]/[[ideological commitment]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Willard Van Orman Quine |title=Confessions of a Confirmed Extensionalist: And Other Essays |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1983 |isbn=0674030842 |pages=315 ''ff'' |chapter=Chapter 22: Ontology and ideology revisited |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8cnG59X1ntQC&pg=PA315}}</ref> [[natural kind]], [[semantic ascent]], [[Quine's paradox]], [[Duhem–Quine thesis]], [[Quine–Putnam indispensability thesis]], [[semantic holism]] ([[confirmation holism]], [[web of belief]], [[hold come what may]]), [[extensionalism]], [[problem of empty names]], [[propositional attitude]], [[two dogmas of empiricism]], [[principle of charity]], [[cognitive synonymy]], [[:de:Beobachtungssatz|observational statement]], [[mathematical quasi-empiricism]], [[Quine–McCluskey algorithm]], [[Quine–Morse set theory]], [[vivid designator]], [[predicate functor logic]], [[Quasi-quotation|Quine quotation]], [[Quine corners]], [[Quine atom]], [[Plato's beard]], [[existential generalization]] and [[universal instantiation]], [[Quine's classification of paradoxes|veridical vs. falsidical paradoxes]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Quine |first=W. V. |title=The Ways of Paradox, and Other Essays |publisher=Random House |year=1966 |location=New York |chapter=The Ways of Paradox |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/waysofparadoxoth0000quin |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref>
}}|influences=[[Bertrand Russell]], [[Rudolf Carnap]], [[Alfred Tarski]], [[Vienna Circle]], [[Clarence Irving Lewis|C. I. Lewis]],<ref name="SEP-CIL">{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Clarence Irving Lewis |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/lewis-ci/ |last=Hunter |first=Bruce |date=2021 |edition=Spring 2021}}</ref> [[Alfred North Whitehead|A. N. Whitehead]], [[B. F. Skinner]], [[Pierre Duhem]]|influenced=[[Noam Chomsky]], [[Roger Gibson]], [[Donald Davidson (philosopher)|Donald Davidson]], [[Daniel Dennett]], [[David Lewis (philosopher)|David Lewis]], [[Penelope Maddy]], [[Hilary Putnam]], [[Richard Rorty]], [[Dagfinn Føllesdal]], [[Gilbert Harman]], [[Hao Wang (academic)|Hao Wang]], [[Peter van Inwagen]], [[Shunsuke Tsurumi]]|awards=[[Rolf Schock Prizes|Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy]] {{small|(1993)}}<br />[[List of Kyoto Prize winners|Kyoto Prize]] <small>(1996)</small>|thesis_title=The Logic of Sequences: A Generalization of Principia Mathematica|thesis_url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271047938_Quine_W_V_The_logic_of_sequences_A_generalization_of_Principia_mathematica_Harvard_dissertations_in_philosophy_Garland_Publishing_New_York_and_London_1990_xi_290_pp|thesis_year=1932|doctoral_advisor=[[Alfred North Whitehead]]|academic_advisors=[[Clarence Irving Lewis|C. I. Lewis]]<ref name=SEP-CIL/>|doctoral_students=[[David Lewis (philosopher)|David Lewis]], [[Gilbert Harman]], [[Dagfinn Føllesdal]], [[Hao Wang (academic)|Hao Wang]], [[Burton Dreben]], [[Charles Parsons (philosopher)|Charles Parsons]], [[John Myhill]], [[Robert McNaughton]]|notable_students=[[Donald Davidson (philosopher)|Donald Davidson]], [[Daniel Dennett]]}}

'''Willard Van Orman Quine''' ({{IPAc-en|k|w|aɪ|n}}; known to his friends as "Van";<ref name="mactutor">{{MacTutor|id=Quine|date=October 2003}}</ref> June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an [[American philosopher]] and [[logician]] in the [[Analytic philosophy|analytic tradition]]. He is recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lehmann-Haupt|first=Christopher|date=2000-12-29|title=W. V. Quine, Philosopher Who Analyzed Language and Reality, Dies at 92|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/29/arts/w-v-quine-philosopher-who-analyzed-language-and-reality-dies-at-92.html|access-date=2023-11-21|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He served as the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at [[Harvard University]] from 1956 to 1978.

Quine was a teacher of logic and [[set theory]]. Quine was famous for his position that [[First-order logic|first order logic]] is the only kind worthy of the name. Based on this idea, he developed his own system of mathematics and set theory, known as [[New Foundations]]. In the [[philosophy of mathematics]], he and his Harvard colleague [[Hilary Putnam]] developed the [[Quine–Putnam indispensability argument]], an argument for the [[Philosophy of mathematics#Empiricism|reality of mathematical entities]].<ref name="plato.stanford.edu">Colyvan, Mark, [http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2004/entries/mathphil-indis/ "Indispensability Arguments in the Philosophy of Mathematics"], The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).</ref> He had the view that philosophy is not [[conceptual analysis]], but continuous with science; the abstract branch of the empirical sciences. This led to his famous quip that "[[philosophy of science]] is philosophy enough".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Quine|first=W. V.|date=August 28, 2023|title=Mr. Strawson on Logical Theory|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2251091|journal=Mind|volume=62|issue=248|pages=433–451|jstor=2251091}}</ref> He led a "systematic attempt to understand science from within the resources of science itself"<ref name="iep">{{Cite encyclopedia|year=2009|title=Quine, Willard Van Orman: Philosophy of Science|encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url=https://iep.utm.edu/quine-sc/|language=en-US}}</ref> and developed an influential [[naturalized epistemology]] that tried to provide "an improved scientific explanation of how we have developed elaborate scientific theories on the basis of meager sensory input".<ref name="iep" /> He also advocated [[ontological relativity]] in science, known as the [[Duhem–Quine thesis]].

His major writings include the papers "On What There Is" (1948), which elucidated [[Bertrand Russell]]'s [[theory of descriptions]] and contains Quine's famous dictum of [[Ontology|ontological]] commitment, "To be is to be the value of a [[Variable (mathematics)|variable]]", and "[[Two Dogmas of Empiricism]]" (1951), which attacked the traditional [[analytic-synthetic distinction]] and reductionism. It wasa against the then-popular [[logical positivism]], advocating instead a form of [[semantic holism]]. They also include the books ''The Web of Belief'' (1970), which advocates a kind of [[coherentism]], and ''[[Word and Object]]'' (1960), which further developed these positions and introduced Quine's famous [[indeterminacy of translation]] thesis, advocating a [[behaviorist]] [[Meaning (philosophy of language)|theory of meaning]].

== References ==
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