
Two Dogmas of Empiricism (1951) - 6502nerdface
http://www.ditext.com/quine/quine.html
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benrjackson
I find it a little bit sad that the only thing most people know about Quine is
source code outputting programs.

Quine was probably the most influential post war analytical philosopher. 'Two
Dogmas of Empiricism' is his most famous work but when I read it as an
undergraduate I felt it was somewhat rooted in its time (being a reaction
against the dominant ideas of early 20th century empiricism). However, when I
read a couple of his later works on the deflationary theory of truth (Quine's
version was 'disquotationalism') it was like I had suddenly grasped some truth
that had always existed just beyond understanding and only needed someone
smarter than me to point out. Donald Davidson would then go on to develop
these ideas with more clarity.

In a bizarre way Quine is responsible for my current profession (Software
engineer) - I got interested in computer languages as a result of studying the
Philosophy of Language during my Philosophy undergraduate degree.

