Mathematical Logic

by Willard Van Orman Quine

W. V. Quine’s systematic development of mathematical logic has been widely praised for the new material presented and for the clarity of its exposition. This revised edition, in which the minor inconsistencies observed since its first publication have been eliminated, will be welcomed by all students and teachers in mathematics and philosophy who are seriously concerned with modern logic.

Max Black, in Mind , has said of this book, “It will serve the purpose of inculcating, by precept and example, standards of clarity and precision which are, even in formal logic, more often pursued than achieved.”

Genres: Philosophy, Mathematics, Logic, Nonfiction, Science

364 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1951

About the author

"Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 Akron, Ohio – December 25, 2000) (known to intimates as "Van"), was an American analytic philosopher and logician. From 1930 until his death 70 years later, Quine was affiliated in some way with Harvard University, first as a student, then as a professor of philosophy and a teacher of mathematics, and finally as an emeritus elder statesman who published or revised seven books in retirement. He filled the Edgar Pierce Chair of Philosophy at Harvard, 1956-78. Quine falls squarely into the analytic philosophy tradition while also being the main proponent of the view that philosophy is not conceptual analysis. His major writings include "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", which attacked the distinction between analytic and synthetic propositions and advocated a form of semantic holism, and Word and Object which further developed these positions and introduced the notorious indeterminacy of translation thesis." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_...

Reviews

[Franklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as math, not philosophy. As philosophy, I wouldn't like it today. At the time Quine and Russell were the only philosophy I knew. The only author I wrote a fan letter to (I was 15, I think). He was kind enough to send back some monographs, including one about functor logic, proving that one could derive all math from an elementary logic using just two symbols, then explaining how that could be reduced to just one symbol. (Don't laugh at me, Amy, I was quite intrigued at the time.)

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suppose this is starting to show its age, but as a piece of system-building this is just amazing. As a piece of analytical philosophy even more so, though I doubt there are many around equipped to read and understand it as such.

If hard-core symbolic logic is your thing, give this a try, otherwise you'll get much much more out of Quine's more "chatty" works.