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1908-2000
Philosopher and Mathematician

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W V Quine stamp from StampExpressions Home page for Willard Van Orman Quine, mathematician and philosopher who held the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at Harvard University from 1956-2000. Over the last half century his literary output was prodigious in such areas as mathematical logic, set theory, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of logic. His best known works include "The Ways of Paradox", "Mathematical Logic", "Set Theory and Its Logic", "Quiddities", and his most influential "Word and Object". His style is not only eminently lucid but lively and elegant. Professor Quine was born June 25, 1908 (anti-Christmas) and died December 25, 2000 (Christmas). His ashes rest between his parents in the Glendale Cemetary, Akron, Ohio with portions scattered in Cambridge MA, Harvard MA, and Meriden CT (with his wife, Marjorie). The last paper he presented was Three Networks: Similarity, Implication, and Membership in Boston (August 1998); it was published in Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy (#6). Quine has made many contributions to logic, but in his philosophical writings he focuses on meaning and existence - the age old concerns of philosopher-man - and he thus continues the traditions begun by the ancient Greeks. Because he is America's most influential living philosopher, many of his concerns have become major concerns of his contemporaries. [from "Essays on the Philosophy of W. V. Quine"]

britannica quine web page awardExtensive visitor comments regarding his philosophy may be read in the W. V. Quine guest book and you may sign into (email) the guestbook: [guestbook] to post your comments or questions. This page is maintained by Douglas Boynton Quine; please E-Mail recommended additions, or corrections to the webmaster: [webmaster]

Quine Centennial Year News

  • Quine Centennial Event at Princeton University (Betts Auditorium, Architecture Building) - Monday, June 23, 2008 from 3 to ... with a reception following. The "Quine Fest" is being organized by Professor Gilbert Harman (Princeton University) and Professor Ernie Lepore (Rutgers University). Some Quine memorabilia will be on display and planned speakers include:
    • Anthony Appiah: Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University (and) the University Center for Human Values
    • Paul Boghossian: Silver Professor of Philosophy, New York University
    • John Burgess: Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
    • Delia Graff Fara: Associate Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
    • Dagfinn Follesdal: Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University (and) Professor emeritus at the University of Oslo
    • Daniel Garber: Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University (and) Chair, Department of Philosophy
    • Gilbert Harman: Stuart Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
    • Ernie Lepore: Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University
    • Douglas Quine: W. V. Quine literary estate (and) Fellow, Pitney Bowes Advanced Concepts and Technology
    • David Schrader, Executive Director of the American Philosophical Association
    • Stephen Stich: Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University
    • Jason Stanley: Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University
    • Morton White: Professor Emeritus, School of Historical Studies, Institute of Advanced Study Princeton

  • Quine Historical Marker Dedication at Oberlin College - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 5 p.m. on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ohio's outstanding native son, the distinguished philosopher and logician Willard Van Orman Quine. In commemoration of the occasion, an official historical plaque from the Ohio Historical Society will be unveiled at Oberlin College (where Quine did his undergraduate studies) on June 25, 2008. The Ohio Historical Society is covering a portion of the cost of the plaque; however, approximately $1,500 still needs to be raised. Donations are welcome, and may be made on-line at Oberlin College Giving. Please be sure to designate "where would you like your gift directed" as "c. Other: Quine Marker and Scholarship"). Alternatively, gifts may be mailed to: Office of Development, Attention: Kay Coughlin, 50 West Lorain, Oberlin, OH 44074. Make checks payable to Oberlin College and cite "Quine Marker and Scholarship" in the memo line. Donations in excess of the cost of the marker will go toward the funding of a Quine Memorial Scholarship at Oberlin College. For further information, including information for those interested in attending the unveiling, contact Bruce N. Waller at bnwaller@ysu.edu. (An early version of this announcement was posted at the American Philosophical Association website on February 18, 2008)

  • Forthcoming W. V. Quine books in this centennial year (preorder - or keep watching for details!):


[w v quine autobiography book cover] Quine's Autobiography

W. V. Quine's Books and translations (11 pages)

This bibliography includes all known books, revised editions, and translations of the books written by W. V. Quine.

W. V. Quine's Posthumous Collections

W. V. Quine's Essays, Articles, Reviews, and Abstracts (11 pages)

This bibliography includes all known essays, articles, and reviews written by W. V. Quine together with a major reprint citation if available. It is based upon the extensive bibliographies published by Eddie Yeghiayan (Special Collections, Main Library, University of California, Irvine, CA ), The Philosophy of W. V. Quine (P. A. Schilpp, editor) and Essays on the Philosophy of W. V. Quine (R. W. Shahan and Chris Swoyer, editors).

Fiction by W. V. Quine

  • 1951. It Tastes Like Chicken in Furioso: Winter 1951 pp. 37-39
  • 1989. (1951 story, reprinted) It Tastes Like Chicken in Delos: Spring 1989, pp. 139 - 141

Selected Popular Book Reviews by W. V. Quine

  • 1963, Sept. 26. Magna Carta on: National Geographic Atlas. -- In: New York Review of Books 1(3): 8 read archive copy
  • 1964, Jan. 9. Mencken on: HL. Mencken. The American Language. -- In: New York Review of Books 1 (9): 7 read archive copy [reprinted in W. V. Quine's Theories and Things]
  • 1964, Mar. 5. On The Map on: The Atlas of Britain and Northern Ireland -- In: New York Review of Books 2 (2): 17 read archive copy
  • 1964, July 9. Science and Truth on: JJC. Smart. Philosophy and Scientific Realism -- In: New York Review of Books read archive copy [reprinted in W. V. Quine's Theories and Things]
  • 1965, Sept. 30. Charting the World on: L. Bagrow. History of Cartography -- In: New York Review of Books 5 (4): 18 read archive copy
  • 1968, May 5. Of: Times Atlas of the World. -- In: Book World (Washington Post & Chicago Tribune): page 7 [reprinted in W. V. Quine's Theories and Things]
  • 1969, Dec. 4. Words Enough on: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language; Random House Dictionary of the English Language, College Edition. -- In: New York Review of Books 13 (10): 3 read archive copy
  • 1978, May 28. Knights and Knaves on: Smullyan. What is the Name of this Book? -- In: New York Times Book Review, pp. 6, 17 [title corrected Sept. 9, 2007; previously incorrectly confused with review below]
  • 1978, Nov. 23. Otherworldly on: N. Goodman. Ways of Worldmaking. -- In: New York Review of Books read archive copy [reprinted in W. V. Quine's Theories and Things]
  • 1985, Feb. 14. Four Hot Questions in Philosophy on: PF. Strawson. Skepticism and Naturalism: Some Varieties (The Woodbridge Lectures, 1983). -- In: New York Review of Books read archive copy

Books and Essays on W. V. Quine (some Roger Gibson Annotations)- 7 page list

Reviews and Announcements of W. V. Quine's Books

  • Methods of Logic, third edition: RBJ's Bibliography and notes
  • Mathematical Logic Comprehensive book review in Bactra: Informal logic is an inescapable part of life as a human being with a plugged-in brain, and not a vegetable or a raving lunatic; even post-structuralists and critical theorists may be observed, off-duty, saying ``That can't be right, because...'' Formal logic is a notoriously dry subject, initiated in the West by the prince of pedants, Aristotle. Mathematical logic, which has emerged only in the last hundred and fifty years, is well known to be abstruse and terrifying, and has made the logician into a creature mathematicians view in much the same way others view mathematicians, i.e. a repository of incomprehensible knowledge. When, in 1995, the Bertrand Russell e-mail list attempted to list all those who had read all three volumes of Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica, they came up with less than two dozen names; two of those people died while the list was being compiled.....
  • Philosophy of Logic RBJ's Bibliography and notes.
  • Quiddities A book review by Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au ), Copyright (c) 1992. Quiddities is a collection of short pieces modeled on ...
  • Quiddities Harvard University Press Bestsellers: "Quiddities is the work of an author who has faith in his own idiosyncratic"...
  • The Time Of My Life. An Autobiography "Quine is a most elegant, perceptive, and entertaining writer, combining a poetic"...

Popular References to W. V. Quine

Please E-Mail references to Quine in popular publications and novels to the webmaster: [webmaster] ... I'm missing many.
  • Quine, Douglas. 1991. "Philosophical Quine Commemorated by San Marino Postmark." Linn's Stamp News (Aug. 19 91): 14
  • Johnson, G. 1995. "O.J. Meets Willard Quine" The New York Times, Sunday May 21, Section 4; Page 1 (Ideas & Trends: Imaginary Witness; O.J.'s Blood and the Big Bang, Together at Last)
  • Hardcastle, Gary. 1996. "Themes in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy... as Reflected in the Work of Monty Python". This talk was written in response to a request from the Philosophy Club at Virginia Tech. Comments from Python fans, philosophers, interested bystanders, raving loonies, and any combination of the above are welcomed! - Gary L. Hardcastle (garyh@vt.edu) Department of Philosophy/Center for the Study of Science..., 27Apr96
  • Boyd, William. 1998. William Boyd's novel "Armadillo" begins with a quote by Quine. The book was recently made into a movie by A&E in collaboration with the BBC (2002) - Eric Thrane.

Humorous References to W. V. Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine Action Figure by Ian Vandewalker
reprinted with permission from the Philosophical Powers Action Figure Web Site by Ian Vandewalker

Residences of W. V. Quine (first draft, corrections welcomed)

  • 396 Nash Street, Akron, Ohio (1908-1909)
  • 38 Hawthorne Street, Akron, Ohio (1909-1919)
  • 16 Orchard Road, Akron, Ohio (1919-1926)
  • 111 Forest Street, Oberlin, Ohio (1926)
  • 30 East Lorain Street, Oberlin, Ohio (1927-1930) "Arthron" house story and photograph
  • 13 Howland Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1930-1931)
  • 888 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1931-1932)
  • Pension Wagner-Szamvald, Hörlgasse, Vienna, Austria (1932-1933)
  • Schwarzspanierstrasse, Vienna, Austria (1933)
  • Pension Fiser, Na Petrska 3, Prague, Czechoslovakia (1933)
  • Hotel Victoria, Ulic Jasna 26, Warsaw, Poland (1933)
  • Ridgely Hall, 65 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1933-1934)
  • 52 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1934-1935)
  • 91 Washington Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1935-1936)
  • 61 Frost Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1936-1937)
  • 21 Waverly Avenue, Newton, Massachusetts (1937-1938)
  • 76 Grozier Road, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1938)
  • Rua da Misericordia 29, Ponta Delgada, Azores (1938-1939)
  • (?) 76 Grozier Road, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1939-1940)
  • 65 Sparks Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1940-1942)
  • Brazil (1942 summer)
  • 843 Fifty-first Street, S.E., Washington DC (1942-1943)
  • 1006 Elm Street, Takoma Park, Maryland (1943-1944)
  • North Danville Street, Arlington, Virginia (1944-1945)
  • 9 Ware Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1945-?)
  • ?, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • North Main Street, Nashua, New Hampshire (1948-1949)
  • 34 Haldeman Road, Santa Monica, California (1949)
  • Harvard Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1949-)
  • 291 School Street, Belmont, Massachusetts (1951-1958)
  • 8A Merton Street, Oxford, England; side entrance was 8 Logic Lane (1953-1954 Sabbatical at Oxford)
  • General Delivery, Harvard, Massachusetts (1956-1998, summers when not elsewhere)
  • 38 Chestnut Street, Boston, Massachusetts (1958-2000, when not elsewhere)
  • Maxwell Lane, Princeton, New Jersey (1956-1957 Sabbatical at Princeton University)
  • 743 Cooksey Lane, Stanford, California (1959-1960 Sabbatical at Stanford University)
  • 35 Home Ave, Middletown, Connecticut (1965 spring Sabbatical at Wesleyan University)
  • Rockefeller University, York Avenue, New York, New York (1968 spring Sabbatical at Rockefeller University)
  • 9 Holywell Street, Oxford, England (1973-1974 Sabbatical at Oxford University)

Newspaper Profiles of W. V. Quine

[W V Quine age 40 and Marjorie Boynton Quine]


passport age 40 with wife Marjorie

WVQ Obituaries, Memorials, Symposia, and Photographs

"Earned" Degrees

  • Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio; 1930 (BA)
  • Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; 1931 (MA)
  • Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; 1932 (PhD)

Honorary Degrees

  1. Oxford University, Oxford, England; 1953 (MA)

  2. Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio; June, 1955 (LittD)

  3. Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; June 7, 1957 (LLD)

    • I now have the honor to present for the honorary degree Doctor of Laws, Willard Van Orman Quine, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University.

      Willard Van Orman Quine was born in Ohio and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College, the degree of Master of Arts from Oxford University, and the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University. After holding fellowships for study in Europe and after being a member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 1933 to 1936, he began his teaching service at Harvard University. He is Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy at that institution and was Chairman of its Philosophy Department from 1952-53. In 1942, Dr. Quine was Visiting Professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and during the year 1953-54 he was a fellow of Balliol College and George Eastman Visiting Professor at Oxford University. During the present year he is a member of the Institute of Advanced Study. Among the numerous honors and recognitions his professional colleagues have bestowed upon him are the Presidency of the Association of Symbolic Logic, and the Presidency of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. In 1955 Oberlin College conferred upon him a doctorate of literature.

      Besides being a co-author of three books, the author of numerous papers in professional journals, many of which have had more impact upon scholarship in philosophy and logic than most books, Professor Quine has written five books and has two more in progress.

      Professor Quine's creative work has earned him world-wide recognition as the successor of Frege, Whitehead, and Russell in a period of logical discovery and development never before equalled in the history of philosophy. Like his worthy predecessors, Professor Quine has sought an integration of mathematical logic and certain related metaphysical themes in philosophy. His many books and articles testify to his brilliant synthesizing spirit of logic and philosophy which represents one of the foremost intellectual movements in our day.

      In recognition of his scholarship in the field of logic and for his contributions to the literature of philosophy, I now present Willard Van Orman Quine for the honorary degree, Doctor of Laws.

  4. University of Lille, France; October, 1965 (LLD)

  5. University of Akron, Akron, Ohio; December, 1965 (LittD)

  6. Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; June 5, 1966 (LittD)

  7. University of Chicago, May 5, 1967 (LHD)
    • Mr. President, I have the honor to present, as a candidate for an honorary degree, Willard Van Orman Quine, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.

      Distinguished for his contributions to mathematical logic, Professor Quine has achieved new standards of clarity and rigor in philosophical reasoning. His formulation of the problem of ontic commitment in the terms of quantificational logic has given philosophy a new locus for the examination of ontological issues. Through his penetrating analyses of analyticity, synonyomy, propositional attitudes and other fundamental concepts he has brought philosophers of all convictions to a critical re-examination of their basic principles.

      In recognition of his outstanding service to philosophy, Mr. President, I request, on behalf of the Division of Humanities, that you confer upon Willard Van Orman Quine, the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

  8. Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; June 1970 (LittD)
    • (by Sidney Axinn) - In a moment of world history when man too rarely reflects upon the tumultous events of this Twentieth Century, he has contributed immensely towards the understanding of man and his condition.

      A distinguished scholar and writer in the field of philosophical studies, he has earned pre-eminence in the study of philosophy of logic throughout forty years of dedication to teaching, research, and writing.

      His numerous honors and distinctions include the George Eastman Visiting Professorship at Oxford, the Gavin Young Lectureship at the University of Adelaide (Australia), appointment as a fellow of Balliol College and in the Institute of Advanced Studies, and his service with distinction as Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.

      I am privileged and pleased to present a distinguished colleague for the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature --.

  9. Oxford University, Oxford, England; June 1970 (DLitt) [citation translated from Latin and Greek; click on image enlarged]
    • Quine Oxford degree latin citation Livy reports thatr Attus Navius cut a whetstone in half with a razor; a sharper razor of the spirit, however, was invented by William of Ockham, the 'invincible doctor', and though only as an 'inceptor', not a Master, he honed it here in Oxford. The cutting-edge of logic has been tempered anew in our time, and our guest to-day has taken possession of the instrument to shave off every abstraction as though it were an infection. He is a new 'nominalist' who rejects universals. He even attempts the Shaving of Plato, although Plato would have greatly approved of one so far from 'innocent of geometry', a skilled dialectician and pursuer of mathematical reasoning. As natural scenery, it is not verdant vales, banked with rustling boskage, that delight him, but desert landscapes. So too in philosophy he would have things plain and solid, no suggestion of 'more things than are drempt of'. For him, being is not to be perceived or to be thought, but to be the value of a variable. However he allows that some entities should be multiplied, his own books for instance (from A System of Logic, 1934, to nos. 11, Ontological Relativity, and 12, Philosophy of Logic, 1969), and his knowledge of languages and etymologies. When he is your guest, do not apply Ockam's razor; he is not a water drinker. He writes copiously, at once like an angel and like an American, with a Roman ruthlessness, a patrician elegance, and the subtlety of Zeno. His origins are Dutch and Isle of Man (where by way of etymology, his name means son of John, McIan), and his birthplace, Akron, Ohio, provides an omen, like Sappho's apple, 'top of the topmost, and the applepickers have forgotten it; no, not forgotten, but they could not reach it.' But he classes himself more modestly; if a cricket eleven of logicians were to be chosen from all past time, he would not figure except as captain of the second eleven. I present to you Willard Van Orman Quine, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard, Eastman Visiting Professor here (1953-4), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Philosophical Society, corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, a notable philosopher and pioneer in Symbolic Logic, for admission to the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa.

      Professor Quine, like Parmenides of old, has so successfully triumphed over the thorny problems of logic that he can express in ordinary language ideas of great complexity. I admit him to the degree of Doctor of Letters.

  10. Cambridge University, Cambridge, England; June 1978 (LittD) [citation translated from Latin; click on image to enlarge]
    • Quine Cambridge degree latin citation Complaining of the limitations of the traditional language will get me nowhere. But even Cicero's pen, I think, might drag if he had to deal with the topics of modern philosophy, which so often appear to be involved with the meaning and distinction of words that someone has wittily said that nowadays ontology recapitulates philology. But the man himself, whom we now desire to honour, we can outline without obscurity. It is generally agreed that he is one of the most eminent philosophers of his time, in interests and methods a true successor of the great Bertrand Russell; and that his influence has never depended solely upon his own adherents.

      As a young man he observed Plato's injunction,       Non-mathematicians keep out and after taking his degree in mathematics at Oberlin College devoted himself to logic under the most celebrated masters both of his own country and of Europe. That technique he has applied with such great finesse in other departments of philosophy that where his predecessors have distinguished various classes of propositions (of which those of mathematics are given pride of place while those of metaphysics are regarded as worthless) he stresses the unity of science and metaphysics.

      The appeal of his teaching owes much to the elegance of his style, and to the terse and deceptively simple and proverbial quality of his maxims, scarcely to be imitated even in Latin without some inquination of the language:       no entity without identity, for example, or to be is to be the value of a variable. As in language he reckons that the jungle should be cut back, so too as a keen traveller he is said to be especially fond of those parts of Mexico which others find distasteful and inhospitable deserts. He has an easy control of foreign languages, and has himself written books in Portuguese. But he teaches that nothing can be translated into another language without some indeterminancy of meaning; that if you are reading this speech in English you cannot know whether I am talking about the man himself, about his sundry parts, or about the universal, Quinehood.

      But without more ado let me present the man himself,

  11. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; June 1979 (LLD)
    • Willard Van Orman Quine: Doctor of Laws: Beyond philosophical dispute a great logician who has left a lasting imprint on his field; within our special compass a friendly teacher, a colleague of generous heart.

  12. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; June 1980 (DPh)Uppsala universitet. Hedersdoktorer Doctores honoris causa. Filosofie hedersdoktorer.

  13. Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York; May 1981 (LHD)
    • Willard Van Orman Quine, your lucid and penetrating treatment of philosophical and logical issues has exercised an influence unsurpassed by the work of any other living American philosopher.

      Your philosophical inquiry has formed the questions of this generation. Your criticism of Empiricist dogmas turned analytic philosophy in new directions and was a major force in moving American philosophy to the forefront in the Anglo-American world.

      During your decades of unchallenged eminence, you have remained the fair, measured, and temperate scholar who generously offers opinion and comment to young philosophers and others whenever they seek your counsel..

  14. University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; December 1982 (DPh)

  15. University of Granada, Granada, Spain; 1986 (DPh)

  16. Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin; May 15, 1983 (LittD)

  17. Adelphi University, New York, May 21, 1989 (LittD)

  18. Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany; June 1997 (Dr.phil.)

Awards and Offices

  • Sheldon Traveling Fellow (Harvard University) 1932-1933 (Vienna, Prague, Warsaw)
  • Society of Fellows (Harvard University), Junior Fellow, 1933-1936
  • Harvard University, Instructor and Tutor in Philosophy, 1936-1941
  • Harvard University, Associate Professor in Philosophy, 1941-1948
  • Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, Visiting Professor, 1942
  • United States Navy, Lieutenant then Lieutenant Commander, active duty, 1942-1946
  • Harvard University, Professor of Philosophy, 1948-1956
  • Society of Fellows (Harvard University), Senior Fellow, 1949-1978
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fellow 1949 -
  • Harvard University, Chairman, Philosophy, 1952-1953
  • Association for Symbolic Logic, President, 1953-1955
  • Bicentennial Silver Medallion, Columbia University, NY, October 13, 1954
  • Harvard University, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy, 1956-1978
  • Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton, NJ) 1956-1957
  • Society of Fellows (Harvard University), Chairman 1957-1958
  • American Philosophical Association, President 1957
  • American Philosophical Society, member 1957 -
  • Centre for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (Palo Alto, CA) 1958-1959
  • British Academy, corresponding fellow 1959 -
  • Instituto Brasileiro de Filosophia, corresponding member 1963-
  • Centre for Advanced Studies (Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT) 1965
  • Nicholas Murray Butler gold medal, Columbia University, NY; June 2, 1970
  • Sir Henry Saville Fellow, Merton College, Oxford University, 1973-1974
  • National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, fellow 1977 -
  • Institut de France 1978 -
  • Harvard University, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, 1978 -
  • Norwegian Academy of Sciences 1979 -
  • F. Polacky gold medal, Prague, 1991
  • Charles University, gold medal, Prague, 1993
  • Rolf Schock Prize, Sweden; 1993 [first award in 'Logic and Philosophy' to: 'Professor W. V. Quine, USA, for his systematical and penetrating discussions of how learning of language and communication are based on socially available evidence and of the consequences of this for theories on knowledge and linguistic meaning - in particular the works From a Logical Point of View (1953), Word and Object (1960), and Pursuit of Truth (1990, 1992)'.]
  • Kyoto Prize, Kyoto, Japan; November, 1996 from Kyocera's Inamouri Foundation
    • We watched the magnificent ceremony in Kyoto early November 10 as it unfolded across the Internet. The elegant hall, music, and flowers all created an ambiance to reflect this special event. For us the experience was an interesting study in contrasts with the traditional Japanese music and dress being complimented by the latest technology that enabled us to watch the ceremony as it happened with color still images every 15 to 60 seconds and a continuous sound feed that crackled in a muffled way much like an early short wave radio. We watched from home on a laptop computer with data pouring through the Internet and over the slow telephone line to our house. The gold medal and purple ribbon were an impressive sight even half way around the world! The Royal Prince and Princess added an element of tradition impossible in this country while we joined in spirit with President Bill Clinton's "delight to congratulate Willard Van Orman Quine" on an intellectual life dedicated to the betterment of humanity. We were pleased to hear the acceptance speech and see early family photographs as a life of research was recognized in a very special setting. The beautiful children's choir and symphony provided a fitting closing. - Doug (son)
    • Willard Van Orman Quine Kyoto Workshop commentary
[book cover]


[book cover]

Quine in (and on) dictionaries

Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE)

DARE is a multi-year project of the late Professor Frederic Cassidy - a close friend of Quine since high school days. The first four (of 5) volumes have been published. They are a wonderful source of information about the regional differences in English across the United States. This continuing monumental effort of research and documentation has been a passion of Quine's. Memorial gifts to help complete the work may be made to DARE / University of Wisconsin Foundation, 1848 University Avenue, P.O. Box 8860, Madison, WI 53708

"Quinean" is a word in the Oxford English Dictionary, Supplement, 1987

  • Quinean - adj. "Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Willard Van Orman Quine or his theories"

"quine" is a word in the The Philosophical Lexicon, eighth edition: 1987, Daniel Dennett (editor), American Philosophical Association, 18 pages

  • quine - v. "(1) To deny resolutely the existence or importance of something real or significant. "Some philosophers have quined classes, and some have even quined physical objects." Occasionally used intransitively, e.g., "You think I quine, sir. I assure you I do not!" (2) n. The total aggregate sensory surface of the world; hence quinitis, irritation of the quine."

"Quine" is a word in The New Hackers Dictionary (version 4.4.6 - October 25, 2003)

  • quine /kwi:n/ [from the name of the logician Willard V. Quine, via Douglas Hofstadter] - n. A program that generates a copy of its own source text as its complete output. Devising the shortest possible quine in some given programming language is a common hackish amusement. Here is one classic quine (of several at the web site): 

      ((lambda (x)
  (list x (list (quote quote) x)))
  (quote
  (lambda (x)
  (list x (list (quote quote) x)))))

    This one works in LISP or Scheme. It's relatively easy to write quines in other languages such as Postscript which readily handle programs as data; much harder (and thus more challenging!) in languages like C which do not.. Some infamous Obfuscated C Contest entries have been quines that reproduced in exotic ways.

W. V. Quine's Ph.D. students - chronological list

Compiled by Charles Parsons and Ti-Grace Atkinson at Harvard University on September 19, 2002. (Names in parentheses are the other names on the acceptance certificate; indented details obtained from various sources.) Additional information gathered from the Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP) listing for W. V. Quine on April 19, 2008. Additions and corrections are welcomed: please E-Mail webmaster: [webmaster]
  • 1940, Leigh D. Steinhardt - later Leigh S. Cauman (Charles Morris)
    • Leigh Steinhardt Cauman was Managing Editor of The Journal of Philosophy from 1960 until her retirement in 1987. She combined this position with teaching logic at the School of General Studies at Columbia University.
  • 1942, George D. W. Berry (H. M. Sheffer)
    • George D. W. Berry taught at Princeton University then at Boston University.
  • 1948, Henry Hiz (C. I. Lewis)
    • Henry Hiz began the study of logic in Poland before the war and probably continued his studies during the war through underground arrangements. He taught at Pennsylvania State University and around 1961 joined the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained until his retirement in 1988. His work applied logical methods to the study of language, in particular semantics.
  • 1948, Hugues Leblanc (Sheffer)
    • Hugues Leblanc came to Harvard from Quebec. He taught at Bryn Mawr College from 1948 to 1997 and at Temple University from then until his retirement in 1992. He died in 1999. He had a large body of work in areas of logic related to philosophy. An account of his life and work appears in the Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, vol. 6 (2000), pp. 230-231.
  • 1948, Hao Wang (C. I. Lewis)
    • Hao Wang was born in China and came to Harvard after having studied mathematics and philosophy there. He was a Junior Fellow (1948-51), then taught at Harvard and Oxford before returning to Harvard as Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Logic in 1961. In 1966 he moved to the Rockefeller University in New York, first as a visitor, where he remained until he retired in 1991. He died in 1995. He was a prolific writer, author of several books and many papers in mathematical logic, computer science, and philosophy. An account of his life and work appears in the Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, vol. 2 (1996), pp. 108-111. The Hao Wang bibliography appears in Philosophia Mathematica (3) 6 (1998), 25-38.
  • 1949, John R. Myhill (L. H. Loomis (mathematics); Myhill acknowledges substantial assistance of Frederic B. Fitch (Yale University), who was not on the committee.)
    • John Myhill taught at several places, including the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, before becoming professor of mathematics at the State University of New York at Buffalo in the mid-1960s. He remained there until his death in about 1984. His work was largely in mathematical logic, especially recursion theory.
  • 1950, Bradford Dunham (Sheffer)
    • Bradford Dunham worked in the research laboratories of IBM, ultimately at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N. Y. He died about 1990.
  • 1951, Robert Forbes McNaughton, Jr. (via MGP)
    • Dissertation: On Establishing the Consistency of Systems.
  • 1951, William Craig (Nelson Goodman, visitor)
    • William Craig taught at Pennsylvania State University and then in the philosophy department at the University of California, Berkeley, where he retired ten or more years ago. He is known for some basic results in theoretical logic, particularly the "interpolation lemma". His later work was largely in algebraic logic.
  • 1951, Robert L. Stanley (Sheffer)
    • Robert L. Stanley taught in the mathematics department of Portland State University and published papers in logic.
  • 1957, Joseph S. Ullian (Burton Dreben, Morton White, Hartley Rogers, Jr.)
    • Ullian wrote Parsons and Atkinson that the thesis was begun with Quine and that White was a replacement while Quine was on leave at Princeton in 1956-57. He states that Rogers was in practice the principal advisor.
    • Joseph S. Ullian was a Harvard undergraduate (1952). After his Ph. D. he taught at Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, before settling at Washington University, St. Louis, where he is Professor of Philosophy. His publications include collaboration with Quine on The Web of Belief and with Nelson Goodman on several articles.
  • 1961, Dagfinn K. Føllesdal (N. L. Wilson, visitor)
    • Professor Dagfinn Føllesdal studied mathematics, astronomy and mechanics at the University of Oslo and mathematics at the University of Göttingen and worked for two years in ionospheric physics before starting his studies for a Ph.D. at Harvard. After his Ph.D. in 1961 he taught at Harvard from 1961 to 1964 and then returned to Oslo on a research fellowship and became Professor of Philosophy there in 1967. In 1968 he began a parallel appointment at Stanford University where he has been C.I. Lewis Professor of Philosophy since 1976. He retired in Oslo in 1999 but continues at Stanford. Føllesdal's research interests are in the philosophy of language, philosophy of Edmund Husserl, and phenomenology, with side interests in the philosophy of science, philosophy of action and ethics.... Publications: Written and edited 16 books and special issues of journals and around 100 articles. Editor, The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 1970-82.... Selected works: "Quine on modality", Donald Davidson and Jaakko Hintikka, eds., Words and Objections: Essays on the Work of W. V. Quine, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1968, 175-85. In 2001, he was the editor of Philosophy of Quine (Five Volume Set of reprinted articles and reviews on Quine) - view the full table of contents at WVQ table of contents.
  • 1961, Charles D. Parsons (Burton Dreben was the principal advisor)
    • Charles Parsons was also a Harvard undergraduate (1954), as well as a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows (1958-61). He taught briefly at Cornell and Harvard and then joined the philosophy department at Columbia University in 1965, where he remained until 1989. Then he returned to Harvard and is now Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy. His thesis and much of his early work were in proof theory. He has written on philosophy of logic and mathematics, on Kant, and on some other historical figures. He is an editor of the posthumous works of Kurt Gödel.
  • 1963, Gilbert H. Harman (Roderick Firth, Donald C. Williams)
    • Gilbert Harman has spent his entire career since leaving graduate school at Princeton University, where he is Professor of Philosophy. His publications are on philosophy of language, epistemology, and the foundations of ethics.
  • 1967, David K. Lewis (Hilary Putnam)
    • David Lewis was at Princeton from 1970 on, after teaching at UCLA. He has a very large body of publications in many areas of philosophy. He has developed a distinctive realistic point of view, in which his realism extends to modality by incorporating possible worlds. He died in October 2001.
  • 1969, Gail Caldwell Stine (Burton Dreben)
    • Gail Caldwell Stine taught at Wayne State University. She died in December 1977 at the age of 37.
  • 1970, Norman Daniels, 1970 (Hilary Putnam was the main advisor; Quine was the second reader)
    • After many years at Tufts University, Daniels recently become professor at the Harvard School of Public Health
  • 1972, Michael J. Devitt (Robert Nozick)
    • Michael Devitt is Australian and after leaving Harvard returned to the University of Sydney until he became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland in the 1980's. In 1999 he became Executive Officer of the Ph. D. Program in Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His publications, including several books, are in philosophy of language and mind.
  • 1973, Frank W. Thompson (Hilary Putnam)
    • Frank Thompson taught philosophy at Indiana University and then moved into economics. He is now Lecturer in Economics at the University of Michigan.

W. V. Quine's undergraduate students - (partial) alphabetical list

Additions and corrections are welcomed: please E-Mail webmaster: [webmaster]
[Donald Davidson book cover]
  • Professor Donald Davidson, one of the most significant philosophers of the XX century, was born March 6, 1917 in Springfield, Massachusetts and died August 30, 2003 in California. He studied English, Comparative Literature and Classics in his undergraduate years at Harvard. In his sophomore year at Harvard, Davidson attended two classes that made a lasting impression on him. These two classes on philosophy were taught by Alfred North Whitehead in the last year of his career. Davidson was then accepted to graduate studies in philosophy at Harvard, where his teacher was Willard Van Orman Quine. Quine set Davidson on a course in philosophy quite different from that of Whitehead. Subsequently, Davidson did his dissertation on Plato's Philebus..... Philosophy of Donald Davidson, 1999 (at a discount from Amazon.com)
  • Professor Daniel C. Dennett, the author of Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Simon & Schuster, 1995), is Distinguished Arts and Sciences Professor, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He received his B.A. in philosophy from Harvard in 1963. He then went to Oxford to work with Gilbert Ryle, under whose supervision he completed the D.Phil. in philosophy in 1965. He taught at U.C. Irvine from 1965 to 1971, when he moved to Tufts, where he has taught ever since, aside from periods visiting at Harvard, Pittsburgh, Oxford, and the Ecole Normal Superieur in Paris.
  • Professor Burton Dreben taught at Harvard University from 1956 to 1990, and was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy from 1981 to 1990 (and Edgar Pierce Professor Emeritus until 1999). He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship (at Oxford University), a Junior Fellowship (Harvard University), and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He also delivered the Sherman Lectures, University College, London; the Lovejoy Lecture, John Hopkins University; the Skolem Memorial Lectures, University of Oslo; the Brian O'Neil Memorial Lectures, University of New Mexico; and was Special Lecturer at the University of Western Ontario as well as the University of California at Berkeley.....
  • Tom Lehrer the man, his myth and his music? by Odell Sneeden Hathaway, III (Copyright, 1992) In this report I will introduce the reader to Tom Lehrer, mathematician and songwriter. First the man. Where did he come from, who was he, what did he do and were is he now. Next we will look at Tom Lehrer the myth, we will look at the effect Dr. Lehrer had on the genre of satire and though satire on the world and at some of the stories that have sprung up concerning Dr. Lehrer. Finally, we will look at Dr. Lehrer's music. Thomas Andrew Lehrer: Born in New York City in 1928, as a child took piano lessons, at the age of 15 entered Harvard University where he majored in mathematics. At the same time, he began writing and performing sarcastic little ditties and parodies. This made him a popular fixture at Harvard parties. Especially freshman smokers. He received his BA in 1947 (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa).....
  • Theodore Kaczynski (aka the unabomber)
[w v quine personal logo]

Quine's cartography logo

Q3 - Quine Quotation Queries - missing entire papers!

(please e-mail the webmaster: [webmaster] if you have copies of these papers, no copies are currently known in the Quine archives or elsewhere. JS is seeking them; scanned images would be much appreciated)
  1. Quine, W.V. 1979. "Clauses and classes" Bulletin d'Information, Societe Francaise de Logique, Methodologie et Philosophie des Sciences 6: 23-29.
  2. Quine, W.V. 1988. "Meaning, truth, and reference" in Les Formes actuelles du vrai, ed., Nicola Incardona (Paris: Institut International de Philosophie)

Q3 - Quine Quotation Queries - unresolved

(please e-mail the webmaster: [webmaster] with answers to the unresolved questions)
  1. MC (July 4, 2006) would greatly appreciate help in tracking down the bon-mot he once came across, attributed to Prof. Quine: "Free-will is a subject about nothing worth reading has ever been written ............. so much for 'free-will'".
  2. DJ (March 27, 2007) I've located a wonderful quote attributed to Quine that I am unable to find the source for. It's this: "the divisions of the universe are not the same as the divisions of the university." I came across it in an essay on Stephen Toulmin: http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1997-03/wartofsk.html I'd be very grateful if someone can help me track down a citation for this. Daniel O. Jackson, English Language Program, J.F. Oberlin University, 3758 Tokiwa-machi, Machida City, Tokyo, 194-02 Japan Tel: 042-797-9583 Fax: 042-704-7083, http://www.geocities.jp/danielja2/main.html

Q3 - Quine Quotation Queries - already answered

  1. MH asks (Feb 25 1997): what tastes like chicken?
    see the story in the 1951 Furioso - it is a shame to give away the punch line of Quine's only fictional work - DBQ

  2. LB asks (Feb 16, 2001): where did Quine write No entity without identity
    the book Ontological relativity and other essays, p. 23
    the book Theories and Things, p. 102
    the book From Stimulus to Science, p. 75

  3. L asks (June 17, 2000): where did Quine write Life is what the least of us make most of us feel the least of us make the most of
    see next entry

  4. SP asks (Feb 19 2001): where did Quine write Life is a burgeoning, life is a quickening
    actually both of the above quotes are part of a longer text: 
          Life is agid, life is fulgid.
      Life is a burgeoning, a
      quickening of the dim primordial
      urge in the murky wastes
      of time. Life is what the
      least of us make most of
      us feel the least of us
      make the most of.
    First observed in Quine's writing log in November 1946, best known as Life is agid. Life is fulgid., sent as to the editor as Lines On life For Mr. Moorhead, and renamed (by the editor) Methods of Logic when published in Hugh S. Moorhead (editor) The Meaning of Life: According To Our Century's Greatest Writers and Thinkers. (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1988): 154-155 (handwritten and printed versions) - DBQ (latest title correction and text reordering of the 3rd and 4th sentences to match the printed text: November 6, 2007)

  5. AH asks (Feb 14, 1999): where did Quine write There is nothing more basic to thought and language than our sense of similarity; our sorting of things into kinds
    According to "http://divcom.otago.ac.nz/SIRC/GeoComp/GeoComp98/17/gc_17.htm" it was Kant, not W.V. Quine - JQB

  6. MJ asks (Apr 15, 2002): where did Quine write To be is to be the value of a bound variable?
    On What There Is page 15 in From A Logical Point of View. Russell Marcus wrote (July 18, 2005) to say that this criterion was also discussed in both: Quine, W.V.O. 1939a. "Designation and Existence." Reprinted in Feigl and Sellars (1949) and in Quine, W.V.O. 1939b. "A Logistical Approach to the Ontological Problem." Reprinted in The Ways of Paradox.

  7. RG says (July 13, 2002) Quine's famous quote: Logic chases truth up the tree of grammar
    is in Philosophy of Logic

  8. RG (and others) asked (July 13, 2002): where did Quine write Philosophy of Science is Philosophy Enough
    Mr. Strawson on Logical Theory page 151 in The Ways of Paradox (rev. and enlarged ed.) (originally pub. in Mind. 1953). The full sentence is: Such solutions are good just to the extent that (a) philosophy of science is philosophy enough and (b) the refashioned underpinnings of science do not engender new philosophical problems of their own. (thanks to Roger Gibson, May 26, 2003)

  9. JE asks (Oct 26, 2002): where did Quine use the phrase "slum of possibles"?
    in the essay On What There Is (on page 4) which was originally published in Review of Metaphysics in 1948. It is most commonly accessed through the popular book of essays entitled From A Logical Point of View - DBQ. The full sentence is Wyman's slum of possibles is a breeding ground for disorderly elements.

  10. JLG asks (December 8, 2003 - question #331 in WVQ guestbook): Where does Quine say, "I espouse a more thorough-going pragmatism."?
    in the essay Two Dogmas of Empiricism which was originally published in Philosophical Review (January 1951), 60(1): 20-43. It is most commonly accessed through the popular book of essays entitled From a Logical Point of View) (quote on page 46) - DBQ. The actual full sentence is In repudiating such a boundary I espouse a more thorough pragmatism. - thanks to David for the answer.

  11. (July 18, 2005) Where does Quine say, "To call a posit a posit is not to patronize it."
    Russell Marus reports that it is found in Word and Object page 22, section 6

  12. TB asks (August 22, 2005 - question #334 in WVQ guestbook): Where does Quine say, ""... the Web, all our beliefs are justified by all our beliefs, they are connected by an explanatory network..."."?
    Two other people were seeking the same answer through Google more than a year ago. The broader context appears to be:
    In the web, all our beliefs are justified by all our other beliefs, they are connected by an explanatory network, and changes in one place can require changes elsewhere. Thus all belief is connected to observation in the world. Are any beliefs immune from this process? Some beliefs do not depend on observation for their justification, in fact no observation whatever could show them to be wrong. Beliefs of this type are said to count as a-priori knowledge: Their justification is independent of experience, a-priori knowledge is contrasted with empirical knowledge which does depend on observation for its justification.
    according to http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=353409 and http://www.quotationspage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2050&sid=a326cacd4a61b375f5276192f341545e

  13. JW asks (March 28, 2006 - question #337 in WVQ guestbook): I have a note attributed to "Quine" which states: "the implicit assumption of mutual understanding." However, the source does not provide a reference to Quine. Source material: Beach, F.A. 1979. Animal models and psychological inference. In: Human Sexuality: A comparative and developmental perspective. H.A. Katchadourian, ed. Univ of Calif Press. Berkeley. Can anyone provide the original source of the Quine quote?
    I'm finding a related (but more complete) quote in several references - Douglas Quine:
    A/ "The less a science has advanced, the more its terminology tends to rest on an uncritical assumption of mutual understanding." (Quine, 1936, p. 90) cited in: Of minds, brains, and behavior-a review of Uttal's (1998) toward a new behaviorism: The case against perceptual reductionism Behavior and Philosophy, Spring 1999 by Machado, Armando
    B/ "The less [a field] is advanced, the more its terminology rests on an uncritical assumption of mutual understanding." (W. V. Quine) cited in: http://www.sequenza21.com/2005/03/cults.html
    C/ "The less a science is advanced, the more its terminology tends to rest on an uncritical assumption of mutual understanding." -- Willard V. Quine in "Word and Object" cited by: Dan Augustine - ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas at http://ml.islandnet.com/pipermail/dixielandjazz/2003-March/008343.html
    D/ "The less a science is advanced, the more its terminology tends to rest on an uncritical assumption of mutual understanding." -- Willard V. Quine (1946, page 84) cited in: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:nyBzvEugyhYJ:murphylibrary.uwlax.edu/ ereserves/Disability%2520service/Cst%2520300/Intro%2520to%2520comm %2520research/chapter%252003.rtf+%22assumption+of+mutual+understanding %22+%2BQuine&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9

Citations of W. V. Quine in Patents (please e-mail the webmaster: [webmaster] any missing patent citations)

  • Quine, W.V. 1952. "The Problem of Simplifying Truth Functions", Am. Math Monthly, vol. 59, No 8 (Oct. 1952) 521-31. "Other Reference" CITED BY:
    1. US Patent # 5,659,775 - Alexander Stein et al (Digital Equipment Corporation): "Topology independent system for state element conversion" (August 19, 1997)
    2. US Patent # 6,665,664 - Glenn Norman Paulley et al (Sybase, Inc): "Prime implicates and query optimization in relational databases" (December 16, 2003)
  • Quine, W.V. 1955. A Way to Simplify Truth Functions, American Mathematics Monthly, 62: 627-631, 1955. "Other Reference" CITED BY:
    1. US Patent # 6,665,664 - Glenn Norman Paulley et al (Sybase, Inc): "Prime implicates and query optimization in relational databases" (December 16, 2003)
  • Quine, W.V. 1959. On Cores and Prime Implicants of Truth Functions, American Mathematics Monthly, 66: 755-760, 1959. "Other Reference" CITED BY:
    1. US Patent # 6,665,664 - Glenn Norman Paulley et al (Sybase, Inc): "Prime implicates and query optimization in relational databases" (December 16, 2003)
  • Quine, W. V. 1987. "Indeterminacy of Translation Again", The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 84, No. 1, Jan. 1987. "Other Reference" CITED BY:
    1. US Patent # 5,115,504 - Edward J. Belove et al (Lotus Development Corporation): "Information management system" (May 19, 1992)
  • Quine-McCluskey algorithm (or) Q-M algorithm (or) Quine-McCluskey method (or) Quine-McCluskey minimization techniques (without journal citation)
    1. US Patent # 4,336,468 - Richard Spillman (The Regents of the University of California): "Simplified combinational logic circuits and method of designing same" (June 22, 1982)
    2. US Patent # 4,507,731 - Brian D. Morrison (Raytheon Company): "Bidirectional data byte aligner" (March 26, 1985)
    3. US Patent # 4,577,227 - Kadagattor V. Gurumurthy (RCA): "Teletext framing code detector" (March 18, 1986)
    4. US Patent # 5,237,513 - Jonathan T. Kaplan (MIT): "Optimal integrated circuit generation" (August 17, 1993)
    5. US Patent # 5,502,648 - Jonathan T. Kaplan (MIT): "Data processing method of generating integrated circuits using prime implicants" (March 26, 1996)
    6. US Patent # 5,666,360 - Xiaoqiang Chem et al (Lucent): "Multicast routing in self-routing multistage networks" (September 9, 1997)
    7. US Patent # 5,671,222 - Xiaoqiang Chem et al (Lucent): "Multicast routing in self-routing multistage networks" (September 23, 1997)
    8. US Patent # 5,748,490 - J. Greg Viot et al (Motorola): "Low power logic minimization for electrical circuits" (May 5, 1998)
    9. US Patent # 5,956,265 - James M. Lewis: "Boolean digital multiplier" (September 21, 1999)
    10. US Patent # 6,304,917 - John R. Douceur et al (Microsoft): "Negotiating optimum parameters in a system of interconnected components" (October 16, 2001)
    11. US Patent # 6,366,300 - Eiji Ohara et al (Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaishi): "Visual programming method and its system" (April 2, 2002)
    12. US Patent # 6,546,430 - Donald M. Gray III et al (Microsoft): "Negotiating optimum parameters in a system of interconnected components" (April 8, 2003)
    13. US Patent # 6,598,034 - Axel K. Kloth (Infineon Technologies): "Rule based IP data processing" (July 22, 2003)
    14. US Patent # 6,678,868 - William K. Lam (Sun Microsystems): "Using Boolean expressions to represent shapes within a layout of an integrated circuit" (January 13, 2004)
    15. US Patent # 6,898,563 - M. David McFarland: "System for aiding in the design of combinatorial logic and sequential state machines" (May 24, 2005)
    16. US Patent # 7,082,044 - Stephen Gould et al (Sensory Networks, Inc.): "Apparatus and method for memory efficient, programmable, pattern matching finite state machine hardware" (July 25, 2006)
    17. US Patent # 7,085,748 - Roy Emek et al (IBM): "Hyper-arc consistency in a contraint satisfaction network" (August 1, 2006)

    W. V. Quine Family Genealogy

    W. V. Quine Web Page Review

    • Review of this W. V. Quine web page appeared in Newsletter on Philosophy and Computers Volume 97, Number 1 (Fall 1997) of the APA Newsletters. Reviewed by: William J. Rapaport, Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, State University of New York at Buffalo. Suppose you wanted to find some information on the Web about a philosopher. You might begin by trying to find his or her home page, if it exists. This can be done most efficiently using "Ahoy! The Home page Finder". Failing that, you might try using a search engine, say, "Yahoo! Arts: Humanities: Philosophy: Philosophers". For Willard Van Orman Quine, neither of these options yields much useful information. Alternatively, you might use many search engines to find as many pages as you can that discuss Quine, and then save links to them. One way to do this easily is via the "go2net MetaCrawler"; a search on the phrase "Willard Van Orman Quine" yielded many sites, including the one under review. This is apparently the idea behind "Willard Van Orman Quine", set up by his son, Douglas Boynton Quine. What he seems to have done is to search the Web for any and all pages that discuss Quine and put them on his Quine home page along with other material that a Quine afficianado might find interesting, including some items that only he would have access to....
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