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Tactically, conceptualism is no doubt the strongest position of the three; for the tired nominalist can lapse into conceptualism and still allay his puritanic conscience with the reflection that he has not quite taken to eating lotus with the Platonists.

— Willard van Orman Quine

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More quotes by Willard van Orman Quine

The word 'definition' has come to have a dangerously reassuring sound, owing no doubt to its frequent occurrence in logical and mathematical writings.

One man's observation is another man's closed book or flight of fancy.

Our argument is not flatly circular, but something like it. It has the form, figuratively speaking, of a closed curve in space.

Necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about.

Ways of Paradox and Other Essays (1976)

Logic chases truth up the tree of grammar.

Philosophy of Logic (1970)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Willard van Orman Quine (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.