Lango, John W.  "Frederic B. Fitch (1908-1987)." Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought Vol. II. Edited by Michel Weber and Will Desmond. Heusenstamm, Germany: Ontos Verlag, 2008. 580-582.

Abstract

Is logic fundamental to philosophy? Frederic B. Fitch's answer to this question was sweeping: "I believe that symbolic logic will eventually make possible new advances in value theory, epistemology, psychology and philosophy which will be comparable to the advances that traditional mathematics, especially after the  advent of calculus, has made possible in the natural sciences" (1961, 94). Fitch's belief in the fruitfulness of logic was realized in his own writings. Best known as a logician, he also wrote on value theory, epistemology, psychology, and philosophy. Although not a conventional process philosopher, he was a sort of Whiteheadian. As a logician, he was strongly influenced by Principia Mathematica; and as a philosopher, he was strongly influenced by Process and Reality. "Fitch's more speculative philosophical writing has," in the words of Ruth Barcan Marcus, "a Whiteheadian thrust" (1988, 552). The influence of Whitehead on Fitch's thought was deep and pervasive, as the following illustration amusingly suggests. In an article about natural deduction rules for an idealized form of English, an article that is not about Whitehead at all, Fitch provided an example that contains this sentence: "Jack has enjoyed reading Process and Reality" (1973, 96).