Grinworthy Quotes (11)

Here are the final three sentences of Alberto Coffa’s “Kant, Bolzano, and the Emergence of Logicism” (Journal of Philosophy, 74, 1982, p. 689):

When concepts were finally wedded to the word, a priori knowledge turned from true in virtue of concepts to true in virtue of meanings—as Carnap put it—or true ex vi terminorum—as Wilfred Sellars put it. Semantics, finally freed from its psychologistic fetters, had produced a coherent, appealing theory that explained a priori and necessary knowledge in a way no longer subject to the idealist temptation.

And then came Quine.

A brilliant way to end an article, in my opinion.