I would like to express my gratitude to several graduate students for their assistance in preparing the manuscript, especially Edward Kopiecki, William Seeley and Paul Eckstein. I benefited too from the comments of students in a class on Quine and those in a logic section. I am indebted to Anthony Grayling, Dagfinn Føllesdal and Ruth Millikan for carefully reading the manuscript and for their suggestions, Gilbert Harman and Dan Isaacson for their support, and Kit Fine, Mel Fitting, Roger Gibson, Elliot Mendelson and Gary Ostertag who were consulted on sections of the work. However, I reserve full credit to myself for any remaining errors. I also wish to thank Wolfson, Exeter and Saint Anne's Colleges, Oxford for affording me the use of their facilities, and the City University of New York for a PSC-BHE research grant.

Most personal and most important of all is my debt to Professor Quine (I could never bring myself to say “Van”) for his works, correspondence, conversation and kindness to me.