Collected Works of Quine: Volume 3

Author: Tu Jiliang, Chen Bo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: This volume includes two treatises: "Set Theory and Its Logic" (1963) and "Philosophy of Logic" (1970). The former is an introductory work on abstract set theory and the systematic formalization of its various axiomatization methods. The authors begin with a formal system that does not explicitly assume the existence of infinite classes. When infinite classes are needed, they allow these assumptions to be stated only as hypotheses for special theorems. In the concluding chapters, they describe Russell's type theory, the Zermelo system, the von Neumann system, and their two systems, as well as certain developments of the time, exploring the logical connections between these systems. In the latter, the authors present logic as a synthesis of truth and grammar, but they oppose the view that logical truth is true because of grammar or language. They provide a general theory of grammar, discuss the boundaries and possible extensions of logic, and argue that logic is not merely a matter of words.