About Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine was a 20th century teacher and philosopher of logic and science. Though influenced by logical positivism, Quine rejected the notion of a distinction between analytical truths and empirical truths. Instead, he maintained that both logic (and math) and science were subject to empirical rules and could be refined through observation and the examination of countervailing evidence.

It was Quine’s work Two Dogmas of Empiricism that inspired the project’s name.  According to Ryan Wright, the creator of Quine, “About 2 years into the development of Quine the system, I started to realize that many of his ideas had very direct parallels in the system I’d been developing. For example, Quine’s interesting sidebar in 'Two Dogmas’ where he asks, ‘which points in Ohio are starting points?’ impressed me as being related to indexes in Quine. Hence the name.”

For more on the philosophical work of W. V. O. Quine, we recommend the book, "Pursuit of Truth" by W. V. Quine, or the Partially Examined Life, Episode #66: Quine on Linguistic Meaning and Science. The cartoon image of Quine is used with permission, and gratitude!