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Birth
Hilary Putnam was born on 31 July 1926 to Samuel and Riva Putnam. Both parents were active communists. -
Ph.D.
Putnam obtained his Ph.D. in 1951 from UCLA. He wrote his dissertation on the concept of probability. -
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Teaching
He taught philosophy at multiple colleges. He began at Northwestern University, then Princeton, and MIT until 1976. -
"The Meaning of 'Meaning'"
In 1975, Putnam wrote his famous paper "The Meaning of 'Meaning'" which discusses meanings as being anchored in external reality. -
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
In 1975 Putnam wrote "Philosophy and Our Mental Life". Here he talks about functionalism and tries to show the functional role of mental states compared to other states and behaviors. -
Harvard
in 1976 he joined the philosophy department at Harvard. -
Death
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Philosophy of Science with Hilary Putman
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Brain in a vat
Putnam took a thought experiment that was meant to raise skepticism and concluded that it was a self-defeating and paradoxical hypothesis. -
Retirement
He retired as Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard in 2000. -
Meaning and Externalism
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Work Cited
“Philosophy of Mind.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Hilary-Putnam/Philosophy-of-mind.