Hilary Putnam is Pearson Professor of Mathematical Logic in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University.
Putnam has written extensively on the philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of natural science, philosophy of language
and the philiosophy of the mind. Among his recent major publication in philiosophy are Representation and Reality
(1988), Realism with a Human Face (1990), and Renewing Philosophy (1992).
Review
"It is a relatively rare, and very welcome, event when an original, brilliantly imaginative analytic philosopher
takes a fresh look at earlier figures in the history of philosophy and proceeds to tell a story that ties in their
work with his own. Analytic philosophy's greatest disability remains its lack of historical resonance, and Hilary
Putnam is one of the few who have worked hard to help it overcome this handicap ... In sum, this book is a useful
supplement to Putnam's other recent work."
--Richard Rorty, The Philosophical Review
Blackwell Publishers Web Site, February, 2001
Summary
Hilary Putnam has been at the center of contemporary debates about the nature of the mind and of its access
to the world, about language and its relation to reality, and many other metaphysical and epistemelogical issues.
In this book he turns to pragmatism - and confronts the teachings of James, Peirce, Dewey, and Wittgenstein - not
solely out of an interest in theoretical questions, but above all to respond to the questions of whether it is
possible to find an alternative to corrosive moral skepticism, on the one hand, and to moral authoritarianism on
the other.
Table of Contents
Hilary Putnam.
Preface.
Introductory Remarks.
1. The Permanace of William James.
2. Was Wittgenstein a Pragmatist?
3. Pragmatism and the Contemporary Debate.
