Letter of Comment to Bergmann (Dec. 5, 1955)
Professor Gustav Bergmann
Department of Philosophy
State University of Iowa
Iowa City Iowa
Dear Gustav,
I have just read your note on "Dispositional Properties and Dispositions." I like the distinctions which you draw in it; also your remark on states and traits.
At the end of the paper, however, there is a seemingly fairly dispensable passage which I think will bring you some just objections; namely, your remark that "whatever one shall eventually decide about the arrow, one will want 'Phi --->(Psi --->Xi)' and '(Phi & Psi) ---> Xi' to be analytically equivalent." Note for instance that your equivalence fails when the arrow is taken as expressing Lewis' strict conditional. Thus "(-p & p) ---> q" is a law for Lewis, while "-p ---> (p ---> q)" is anethema to him.
I hope to see you here in a few weeks. Sincerely yours,
Van
W. V. Quine
I have written out "Phi," "Psi," and "Xi" where Quine had penciled in the Greek letters. Steve BayneHome