"On What There Is". Reprinted from the Review of Metaphysics, vol. II, no. 5, September 1948, pp. 21-38.

QUINE, Willard Van Orman.

Published by 1948

About this Item

Original offprint, presentation copy, inscribed from the author to his elder brother Robert Cloyd Quine and his wife Rosalie, "To Rosalie & Bob. Look - no symbols. Van"; a reference surely to the impenetrability to laymen of logical papers filled with symbols and equations. "After World War II, Quine returned to the issue that was a central concern in his dissertation: 'to know or decide what there is or are' (The Time of my Life, p. 98). He insisted on the need to make clear what the entities are that one talks about: 'no entity without identity'. He also sought clarity concerning what entities are assumed by a theory. In 'On What There Is', one of his most-quoted essays, he argued that a theory is committed to all those entities that belong to the universe of discourse of the theory: 'to be is to be the value of a variable'. In Quine's later work, this realism took an intriguing new turn, not yet fully explored in the secondary literature, toward indeterminacy of reference" (ANB). Octavo, [20] pp. Wire-stitched as issued. Lightly soiled and toned, minor peripheral creasing and nicks. A good copy.

Seller Inventory # 150088

Bibliographic Details

• Title: "On What There Is". Reprinted from the Review of Metaphysics, vol. II, no. 5, September 1948, pp. 21-38.
• Publisher: 1948
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)