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Birth
Hilary Putnam was born July 31, 1926 in Chicago IL
He was an only child born to Samuel and Riva Putnam. -
Earn Ph.D
In 1951 Hilary Putnam earned his Ph. D at the University of California Los Angels. -
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Professor of Philosophy
From 1951 to 1975 Putnam taught philosophy at Northwestern University, Princeton University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) -
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Machine State Functionalism
Between 1960 and 1967 Putnam developed his machine state functionalism theory which compares the mind of all living creatures in the animal kingdom to computer programs with functions. "According to Putnam's machine state functionalism, any creature with a mind can be regarded as a Turing machine (an idealized finite state digital computer), whose operation can be fully specified by a set of instructions (a “machine table” or program) each having the form" (Stanford Philosophy Aug 2004) -
Best Known Work " Multiple Realization"
Putnam's best known work is that of multiple realization, which states that, contrary to the famous claim of the type-identity theory, it is not necessarily true that "Pain is identical to C-fibre firing." Pain, according to Putnam's papers, may correspond to utterly different physical states of the nervous system in different organisms, and yet they all experience the same mental state of "being in pain".(Birch, J 2011) -
Proved that the Diophantine equation was unsolvable.
Hilary worked on one of the unsolved problems in mathematics identified by David Hilbert in 1900, In 1961 Hilary proved that this equation was unsolvable. -
Philosophy & Our Mental Life - Hilary Putnam (1973)
Lecture by Putnam in 1973
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JMdgPDU0SM -
Meaning and Reference (1973)
on Nov 8th, 1973 Putnam published his paper in the Journal of Philosophy, Meaning and Reference when he famously stated that "meaning just ain't in the head". This was a contribution to the Philosophy of Language. Putnam, Hilary (1973). Meaning and reference. Journal of Philosophy 70 (19):699-711. -
The Meaning of 'Meaning' (1975),
In 1975 Hilary Putnam published a paper called the Meaning of Meaning where he challenged the orthodox view in the philosophy of Language of the mind. Putnam, Hillary (1975). The meaning of 'meaning'. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7:131-193. -
Publication of Representation and Reality
In the late 1980s Hilary Putnam refuted the idea of functionalism. In 1991 he published a book called Representation and Reality. "He argues against direct claims that functionalism can give an exact account of the content of prepositional attitudes". (Silverberg, A 1992) -
Retirement.
In 2000 Hilary Putnam retired as Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard in 2000. -
Death
Putnam Died on March 13, 2016 due to complication with lung cancer