Quiddities - An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary

The playful nature of this book is evident not only in its subtitle but in its title as well: quiddities can be either essences or inessentials. The 80-odd entries (alphabet to zero) give us a relaxed, informal Quine speaking his mind unfettered by the exigencies of the active professoriat (he is professor emeritus, Harvard). For the most part, the entries deal with philosophical, linguistic, and mathematical issues ( altruism, beauty, freedom, identity, phonemes, real numbers), but there are also discussions of gambling, gender, and universal library and of neologisms (mathematosis, misling). This mixed bag will interest sophisticated readers; philosophers, while delighting in the free play of a fine intellect, may secretly wish for more depth.