Who cares when his work was done. We want to know how to find work that helps us to understand things today. It’s not about how smart he was, but about how much his ideas can help us.
And my answer is “not much.” Like I say, all the basics of Quinean philosophy are already assumed by Less Wrong. I don’t recommend anyone read Quine. It’s (some of) the stuff his followers have done in the last 30 years that is useful—both stuff that is already being used by SIAI people, and stuff that is useful but (previously) undiscovered by SIAI people. I listed some of that stuff here.
Who cares when his work was done. We want to know how to find work that helps us to understand things today. It’s not about how smart he was, but about how much his ideas can help us.
And my answer is “not much.” Like I say, all the basics of Quinean philosophy are already assumed by Less Wrong. I don’t recommend anyone read Quine. It’s (some of) the stuff his followers have done in the last 30 years that is useful—both stuff that is already being used by SIAI people, and stuff that is useful but (previously) undiscovered by SIAI people. I listed some of that stuff here.