From a Logical Point of View

A collection of nine 'logico-philosophical essays' that contains two of the most cited papers in twentieth-century philosophy. 'On What There Is' asks what exists and offers a criterion of ontological commitment: a theory is committed to whatever its bound variables must range over for it to be true, summed up in the slogan that to be is to be the value of a variable. 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism' attacks the distinction between analytic truths, true by meaning alone, and synthetic truths, true by fact, arguing that analyticity cannot be defined without circularity. It also rejects the reductionist idea that each statement faces experience on its own. Instead our beliefs form a web that meets experience as a whole, and no statement, even of logic, is immune to revision. Other essays treat meaning in linguistics, identity and ostension, a new set theory ('New Foundations'), universals, reference and modality. The collection marks Quine's break with Carnap and the logical positivists.

'Two Dogmas' and 'On What There Is' are required reading for analytic philosophy, and both are short enough to study closely.