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Notes on Truth, Beauty, and Goodness -- Phil A231 William Jamison - Instructor On reading Quine Why did I select a book by Quine for this class -- and why this book? In previous classes I have started with Wittgenstein and students considered the readings incredibly difficult. I was critiqued for assigning work that was much to advanced for a beginning philosophy class. Over several semesters I improved how I introduced Wittgenstein and so had better results. Students still agreed he was difficult but could see the value in reading him none the less. I had also noticed that the second book -- the Sheppard which students had previously considered to difficult for the course as well had suddenly become an easy book after reading Wittgenstein first! I thought, why not have another book before the Wittgenstein readings that might make Wittgenstein easier to read? Quine historically follows Wittgenstein and his logical point of view incorporates much of what would be developed by Wittgenstein in his "Philosophical Investigations." Quine was influenced by Russell and Whitehead, and members of the Vienna Circle, but especially Tarski. A direct link with Wittgenstein there is not, but since so many who were influenced by Wittgenstein were included in those that influenced Quine, it is relatively easy to relate Quine's work with Wittgenstein's in many respects and to see differences as well. But Quine's book The Web of Belief describes a very contemporary view of how knowledge, belief, and language are understood in relation to one another as we use them today. Resources Idea for the title of the book "From a Logical Point of View" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671657151/qid=1106426851/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-0189521-7721735 Bloom "Closing of the American Mind" A new book review on Katz: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=1521 Youtube video of an interview with Quine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iZvycU3I9w The Fara interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIL8ms8QCJY&feature=related section 1 (and there are others) A reading of On What There Is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBaynsY0iNI&feature=related
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This page is maintained by William S. Jamison. It was last updated August 14, 2012. All links on these pages are either to open source or public domain materials or they are marked with the appropriate copyright information. I frequently check the links I have made to other web sites but each source is responsible for their own content. |