Quiddities : An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary

The appellation “polymath” is often lightly bestowed, but it can be applied with confidence to the celebrated philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine. Quine’s areas of interest are panoramic, as this lively book amply demonstrates. Moving from A (alphabet) to Z (zero), Quiddities roams through more than eighty topics, each providing a full measure of piquant thought, wordplay, and wisdom, couched in easy and elegant prose – “Quine at his unbuttoned best,” in Donald Davidson’s words. Philosophy, language, and mathematics are the subjects most fully represented; tides of entries include belief, communication, free will, idiotisms, longitude and latitude, marks, prizes, Latin pronunciation, tolerance, trinity. Even the more technical entries are larded with homely lore, anecdote, and whimsical humor. Quiddities will be a treat for admirers of Quine and for others who like to think, who care about language, and who enjoy the free play of intellect on topics large and small.

The appellation "polymath" is often lightly bestowed, but it can be applied with confidence to the celebrated philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine. Quine's areas of interest are panoramic, as this lively book amply demonstrates.

Moving from A (alphabet) to Z (zero), Quiddities roams through more than eighty topics, each providing a full measure of piquant thought, wordplay, and wisdom, couched in easy and elegant prose—"Quine at his unbuttoned best," in Donald Davidson's words. Philosophy, language, and mathematics are the subjects most fully represented; tides of entries include belief, communication, free will, idiotisms, longitude and latitude, marks, prizes, Latin pronunciation, tolerance, trinity. Even the more technical entries are larded with homely lore, anecdote, and whimsical humor.

Quiddities will be a treat for admirers of Quine and for others who like to think, who care about language, and who enjoy the free play of intellect on topics large and small. For this select audience, it is an ideal book for browsing.

Hilary Putnam - London Review of Books

Quine is not only a great philosopher, but also a master of the English language and a genuine polymath...Anyone who wants to encounter a great philosophical mind in a less technical mood, and to get some feeling for Quine as a peerless companion, raconteur, and amused commentator on the passing show...cannot do better than to read this book.

Alphabet -- Altruism -- Anomaly -- Artificial Languages -- Atoms -- Beauty -- Belief -- Classes Versus Properties -- Classes Versus Sets -- Communication -- Complex Numbers -- Consonant Clusters -- Constructivism -- Copula -- Creation -- Decimals And Dimidials -- Definition -- Discreteness -- Etymology -- Euphemism -- Excluded Middle -- Extravagance -- Fermat's Last Theorem -- Formalism -- Freedom -- Free Will -- Functions -- Future -- Gambling -- Gender -- Gödel's Theorem -- Ideas -- Identity -- Idiotisms -- Impredicativity -- Infinite Numbers -- Inflection -- Information -- Kinship Of Words -- Knowledge -- Language Drift -- Language Reform -- Latin Pronunciation -- Lines -- Longitude And Latitude -- Marks -- Mathematosis -- Meaning -- Mind Versus Body -- Misling -- Natural Numbers -- Necessity -- Negation -- Paradoxes -- Phonemes -- Plurals -- Predicate Logic -- Prediction -- Prefixes -- Prizes -- Pronunciation -- Real Numbers -- Recursion -- Redundancy -- Reference, Reification -- Rhetoric -- Semantic Switch -- Senses Of Words -- Singular Terms -- Space-time -- Syntax -- Things -- Tolerance -- Trinity -- Truth -- Type Versus Token -- Units -- Universal Library -- Universals -- Usage And Abusage -- Use Versus Mention -- Variables -- Zero. W.v. Quine. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The appellation polymath is often lightly bestowed, but it can be applied with confidence to the celebrated philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine. Quines areas of interest are panoramic, as this lively book amply demonstrates. Moving from A ( alphabet ) to Z ( zero ), Quiddities roams through more than eighty topics, each providing a full measure of piquant thought, wordplay, and wisdom, couched in easy and elegant proseQuine at his unbuttoned best, in Donald Davidsons words. Philosophy, language, and mathematics are the subjects most fully represented; tides of entries include belief , communication , free will , idiotisms , longitude and latitude , marks , prizes , Latin pronunciation , tolerance , trinity . Even the more technical entries are larded with homely lore, anecdote, and whimsical humor. Quiddities will be a treat for admirers of Quine and for others who like to think, who care about language, and who enjoy the free play of intellect on topics large and small. For this select audience, it is an ideal book for browsing. To define the quiddity of a thing originally meant to define its essential nature. The word later meant a subtle distinction and later, a quibble. All three senses are called into play in this book containing a series of essays in a dictionary form on subjects ranging from altruism to zero. Discusses eighty topics in philosophy, language, and mathematics ranging from alphabet and anomaly to usage and zero