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Hilary Putnam (July 31, 1926 - March 13, 2016)
Hilary Putman was a leading philosopher making considerable contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, the philology of mind, the philosophy of language, science, mathematics, and logic. He wrote twenty-four books and over three hundred articles. Hilary obtained his Ph.D. in 1951 after attending school at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). -
Hilary Putnam (July 31, 1926 - March 13, 2016)
Martin Davis and Hilary Putnam developed the Davis-Putnam algorithm for checking the rationality of a first-order logic formula using a resolution-based course of action for propositional logic. -
Hilary Putnam (July 31, 1926 - March 13, 2016)
"Meanings just ain't in the head," said Putnam describing his theory of semantic externalism. His theory explained that linguistic meanings aren't just mental entities but reach out to external reality. Meanings aren't subjective but are determined by the objects and events of the social and natural world. His work led to the "Brains in a Vat" experiment, where he suggested we might be just brains in a vat of nutrients. This inspired the movie "The Matrix." -
Hilary Putnam (July 31, 1926 - March 13, 2016)
Hilary introduced the theory known as machine state functionalism which enormously impacted the philosophy of mind. This doctrine characterizes the mind by its function, not what it is constructed of. He compared the human mentality to computers describing that they both have hardware and software that are disjoint. Hilary stated that any creature with a mind could be regarded as a turning machine whose operations can be fully specified by a set of instructions. -
Hilary Putnam (July 31, 1926 - March 13, 2016)
One well-known debate about scientific realism is the No Miracle Argument. Hilary claimed that our best scientific theories are merely hypotheses that do not make science's predictive and explanatory achievement a mystery. This theory caused many questions on whether science needed an explanation and, if so, what kind. A non-miraculous explanation in science is always more accepted than a miraculous one. -
Hilary Putnam (July 31, 1926 - March 13, 2016)
Hilary made significant contributions to the philosophy of mathematics. Alongside several other great philosophers, he co-published Hilbert's Tenth Problem. Hilary's argument is known as the Quine-Putnam indispensability argument for mathematical realism. This argument urges scientists to view mathematical entities with the same ontological standing as other units in scientific theories. -
