A Commentary on the Passing Scene by
Robert Paul Wolff
rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
Thursday, January 19, 2017
MORNING WALK
This was a Frege morning: a bright half moon, and right next to it, the Morning Star. As a boy, I called this a Quine morning, but I have since learned better.
When I was a sixteen year old first semester Freshman, I studied logic at Harvard with Quine. He introduced us to the example of the Morning Star and the Evening Star and I mistakenly thought it was his example. Only later did I learn that he had taken it from Frege.
This is a police log entry for Amherst last Friday (police with Fregian sense?): 5:45 p.m. – A woman reported seeing a strange light in the sky over Belchertown Road that she said was brighter than a star but dimmer than the moon. Police determined the light was coming from a star.
As a boy?? How old a boy calls such a morning a Quine morning?
ReplyDeleteAs a boy you called it a Quine morning and now a Frege one? Interesting, considering Frege was prior to Quine!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a sixteen year old first semester Freshman, I studied logic at Harvard with Quine. He introduced us to the example of the Morning Star and the Evening Star and I mistakenly thought it was his example. Only later did I learn that he had taken it from Frege.
ReplyDeleteAnd what if they discovered Frege's long-lost birth certificate, showing his surname was actually Quine?
ReplyDelete*was actually "Quine"?
ReplyDeleteIt would depend on whether they found it in the morning or the evening.
ReplyDeleteVenus is Venus
ReplyDeleteThis is a police log entry for Amherst last Friday (police with Fregian sense?):
ReplyDelete5:45 p.m. – A woman reported seeing a strange light in the sky over Belchertown Road that she said was brighter than a star but dimmer than the moon. Police determined the light was coming from a star.
This says a very great deal about how peaceful Amherst is, if this makes its way into the Police log! I love it.
ReplyDelete