Y. R. Chao on his dissertation (1974)

Yuen Ren Chao 趙元任, the historical and descriptive linguist of Chinese, wrote his doctoral dissertation on logic in Harvard’s Department of Philosophy (1918). He later recalled:

Professor [Henry M. Sheffer] was really very meticulous; he was in charge of my thesis on “Continuity: A Study in Methodology,” concerned with the question of the difference between a difference of degree and difference of kind, and when it’s a difference of kind, is it also a difference of degree.

I remember at the defense of the thesis, at which Professor William Ernest Hocking was chairman, after they announced that I had passed the examination, Professor Hocking asked me, “Do you feel that writing on such a subject has had any effect on your life?” I said, “Certainly it didn’t help me in my habits of indecision.”

[from First "Green Letter", Peking, 1921:] [My dissertation] prov[ed] that it was impossible to prove anything and conclud[ed] that no universal proposition was true.

Quoted from an oral history interview with Rosemary Levenson, 1974. Now posted at http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb8779p27v&chunk.id=div00023&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text . Accessed 20111129.

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