I understood hardly a word of it. Quine's work was not a window on the Great Beyond but an intellectual microscope applied to games he played with others. If ever there were a philosopher's philosopher it was Quine. He prowled the frontiers of set theory and mathematical logic. This sort of distinction well demonstrates the distance philosophy had travelled from public accessibility.
Philosophy is no more or less than a science.
I can think of economists and political theorists whose ideas have changed my life. I can think of engineers, inventors, jurists, even artists, who have upset the equilibrium of my days, not always for the better. But the philosopher wanders the scholastic desert alone, skirting any oasis where he might find beings who speak a common tongue. The heirs of Socrates and Aristotle, Erasmus and Hume wrestle with each other apart. Perhaps we have dumbed so far down that we celebrate sheer abstruseness.