Theory of Deduction: Parts I-IV
Cambridge: Harvard Cooperative Society, 1948.
First edition, presumed first issue. 156 p. Mimeographed of typescript, printed on rectos only, bound in plain paper wraps. Fair with staining and creasing to cover and former owner's notes throughout in pencil and pen, name and dorm address on title page. Includes a final exam from 1949-1950, a four-page booklet. This work is an early version of what would become the seminal textbook Methods of Logic, used by Quine for his Harvard class Philosophy 140, an introductory class in logic, as a coursebook. Quine mentions typing it with his wife, Marge, on their honeymoon in the memoir The Time of My Life. Theory of Deduction did not circulate much beyond the Harvard student body and has never been reprinted, although it was considered significant enough by Quine's colleagues to be reviewed in The Journal of Symbolic Logic in 1949. This copy is from the estate of Donald Davidson, through the trade. A scarce document of the evolution of Quine's thought. An OCLC search locates only seven physical copies in worldwide institutional holdings.
Price: $1,700.00