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Birth
Hilary Whitehall Putnam was born on July 31st, 1926 to Samuel and Riva Putnam in Chicago, Illinois. He had no siblings and would remain an only child for his whole life. -
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University of Pennsylvania
Putnam attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1944 - 1948 and graduated after having completed 3 bachelor degrees: Philosophy, German, and linguistic analysis. -
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Graduate Program
Putnam started his graduate degree in Harvard, but transferred to the University of California, Las Angeles, to study under Hans Reichenbach, a philosophical logical positivist. He completed his PhD dissertation in a record time for the university. only 2 years. His disertation was titled, "The Meaning of the Concept of Probability in Application to Finite Sequences." -
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Professor of Philosophy- The Early Years
Hilary Putnam was the professor of philosophy at Northwestern University from 1951 to 1952, Princeton University from 1953 to 1961, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1961 to 1965. -
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Harvard
Putnam became the professor of philosophy for Harvard University in 1965 and remained there until he retired in 2000. During his time there he had not only published over 150 articles and multiple books, but he was an avid political activist during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement. -
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Multiple Realizabilities of the Mental Functionalism
In the late 60's, Putnam, through a series of published papers, pushed the idea of Multiple realizabilities which states that mental signals of sensations such as pain, are recognized by different "brains" and will not be recognized using the same method. Putnam published many works but none so much as note worthy than his work on "Realism" and "Meaning." -
Brains in Vats
In 1981, Putnam published a book called "Truth, Reason, and History." In this book included his 'Brain in a Vat' thought experiment on how the brain does not need to body in order to created a simulated reality by manipulating how the brain feels sensations within the "vat." Although some believe the outcome of the experiment to be meaningless, it has had a profound impact on the science of simulated consciousness in computers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO0sSJB1TrI -
Death
In the morning of March 13th, 2016, Hilary Putnam died of mesothelioma. He leaves behind his wife and four children. -
Works Cited
americanphilosopher. “Hilary Putnam (1926 - 2016).” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLrVxNlUxBo.
Baghramian, Maria. “Hilary Putnam (1926-2016).” Philosophy Now: a Magazine of Ideas, 2016, philosophynow.org/issues/114/Hilary_Putnam_1926-2016.
Ben-Menahem, Yemima. “Hilary Putnam.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 July 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Hilary-Putnam. -
Works Cited - Continued 1
Bickle, John. “Multiple Realizability.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 23 Nov. 1998, plato.stanford.edu/entries/multiple-realizability/.
Hickey, Lance. “The Brain in a Vat Argument.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.utm.edu/brainvat/.
Kultur, SRF. “Thought Experiment BRAIN IN A VAT” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO0sSJB1TrI.
Putnam, Hilary. Reason, Truth and History. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.
