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HILLARY PUTNAM
Hilary Whitehall Putnam, a mathematician, computer scientist, and professor, was one of the greatest american philosophers who revolutionized the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, ethical thinking, metaphysics and epistemology. Regardless of the constant criticism he faced with contradicting his own work and his works, he holds many accomplishments, including past president roles in different philosophy associations. -
Mind and Language, 1967, 1975
Putnam's' contributions of mind and language mostly derived from his focus on the roles, rather than on substances, of mental states. His theory on "Machine Functionalism" (1967), offered a credible solution to the mind-body problem. His Twin Earth Theory (1975), aimed to elicit the intuition that meaning of words largely depends on how things are natural and social worlds, and not on our thoughts and believes about "meanings just ain't in the head."[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE8NL9G_Fq8] -
Hilbert's Tenth Problem, 1964
Martin Davis, Hilary Putnam, and Julia Robinson all co published the unsolvable Hilbert's Tenth Problem in Mathematics. To Putnam, this was his most important intellectual activity of his life. -
Revolutionizing Math and Science, 1975
Putnam's early publications in the 1960's focused on philosophies of mathematics and sciences. Two of his arguments for realism about science and mathematics remain highly influential. The "no-miracle" and "indispensability" argument in philosophy of science and math, both aim to show it would be impossible to explain the success of scientific theories without knowing and taking into account how things stand in the world (perceptions), and use of mathematical formulas, proving indispensable. -
Brain in a Vat Thought Experiment, 1981
Hilary Putnam is credited to updating Rene Descartes' Evil Demons Problem with his "Brain in a Vat thought experiment. With his experiment, he argues for a truth theory that ignores the problem of skepticism, refuting Descartes' hypothesis with semantic externalism.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cpm0NUYMUY.] -
"The Greatest Question of Realism"
In Philosophy and Science, he was known for contradicting his own views, especially when it came to realism. Putnam was a strong supporter of metaphysical realism, until the 1980's "internal realism" or "common sense realism" to him, to direct realism, pragmatic realism and natural realism. A former student of his, states that the problem with realism is that many accommodate realism about science while avoiding the type of scientism and reduces all truth to whats known through science itself. -
Works and Contributions
Putnam, Hilary. “Brains and Behavior.” reprinted in Putnam 1975, 325–341. 1963.
Putnam, Hilary. Mathematics, Matter and Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Putnam, Hilary. Meaning and the Moral Sciences. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.1978.
Putnam, Hilary. “Minds and Machines”, reprinted in Putnam 1975, 362–385, 1988.
Putnam, Hilary. Mind, Language, and Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.1975. -
Death, March 13, 2016
Hilary Putnam, after having been a professor at Harvard for 35 years, retired in 2000. He continued to publish and lecture until 2014. He worked on his blog, Sardonic Comment, until 2015. He was a president in the American Philosophical Association, was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2011, he received the Rolf Schock Prize in logic and philosophy. Some of his work:
Renewing Philosophy, Minds and Machines, The Meaning of "Meaning."
