Ontologisches Problem W.v.O.Quine |
| A curious thing about the
ontological problem is its simplicity. It can be put in three Anglo-Saxon
monosyllables: 'What is there?' It can be answered, moreover, in a
word—'Everything'—and everyone will accept this answer as
true. Willard van Orman Quine. "On What There Is". From a Logical Point of View. 1996. |
| "To be is to be the
value of a variable" stammt aus: "A Logistical Approach to the Ontological Problem", presented at the fifth International Congress for the Unity Of Science, Cambridge, MA, 1939; nachgedruckt in The Ways of Paradox and Other Evsays. New York: Random House, 1966, 64-69. Allerdings schrieb Quine später: "Certainly the answer is not provided by the semantical formula 'To be is to be the value of a variable';" ("On What There Is". From a Logical Point of View. 1996. 15). |
Zitat von
der  Quine-Webauftritt [Quine] wrote his doctoral thesis on a 1927 Remington typewriter, which he still uses. However, he "had an operation on it" to change a few keys to accommodate special symbols. "I found I could do without the second period, the second comma -- and the question mark." "You don't miss the question mark?" "Well, you see, I deal in certainties." |
| Ein Beitrag zur "radical translation" |
| More and more curious to ascertain our fate, I now
threw together in the form of a question the words "Happar" and "Motarkee," the
latter being equivalent to the word "good." The two natives interchanged
glances of peculiar meaning with one another at this, and manifested no little
surprise; but on the repition of the question, after some consultation
together, to the great joy of Toby, they answered in the affirmative. Herman Melville. Typee, Chapter X., 1846; Rezension |