more from Willard Quine

Single Idea 20296

[catalogued under 5. Theory of Logic / C. Ontology of Logic / 4. Logic by Convention]

Full Idea

Quine argues that logic could not be established by conventions, since the logical truths, being infinite in number, must be given by general conventions rather than singly; and logic is needed in the meta-theory, to apply to individual cases.

Gist of Idea

Logic needs general conventions, but that needs logic to apply them to individual cases

Source

report of Willard Quine (Truth by Convention [1935]) by Georges Rey - The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction 3.4

Book Reference

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.7


A Reaction

A helpful insight into Quine's claim. If only someone would print these one sentence summaries at the top of classic papers, we would all get far more out of them at first reading. Assuming Rey is right!