March 9, 2001

W. V. Quine and B. F. Skinner

To the Editor:

In his essay on the late Harvard philosopher W.V. Quine, Richard Rorty writes that Quine was "[m]uch influenced by his friend B.F. Skinner" ("An Imaginative Philosopher: the Legacy of W.V. Quine," The Review, February 2). I find no evidence of this in their autobiographies. Quine did write that his friend Fred Skinner "opened doors" for him in his study of linguistics, and that the psychologist had suggested to him some authors to read on the subject, but this hardly

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