Hilary putnam

Hilary Putnum (1926-2016)

  • Hilary Putnum's birth

    Hilary Putnam was born on July 31, 1926, in Chicago, IL to Samuel and Riva Putnum.
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    Putnam's education

    Hilary Putnam was very well educated. After excelling in high school, he went on to earn both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Ivy League schools. He studies both mathematics and philosophy while studying for his undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to earn his Master's in Philosophy from Harvard University and his PhD from The University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). He wrote his dissertation on the concept of probability.
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    Hilary Putnam the professor

    After completing his PhD, he became a Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He also taught at Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University. Upon his retirement in 2000, he was titled Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard for his contributions to Philosophy.
  • Putnam was anti-war

    Hilary Putnam was very anti-war in the 1960's, and participated in many movements against the Vietnam War. Some noted groups he was involved in include Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Progressive Labor Party, and the Maoist group.
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    Putnam's contributions to Mathematics and Science

    Hilary Putnam researched and pondered mathematical logic while a professor at Princeton University. He participated in the group that worked on solving Diophantine equations, a mathematical problem that was later determined to be unsolvable. He worked on this with renowned scientists such as Martin Davis, Julia Robinson, and Yuri Matiyasevich.
  • The Meaning of "Meaning"

    Hilary Putnam studied realism, like many other philosophers of this time. He believes that truth and meaning are intertwined, and cannot exist without the other, He wrote a paper titled "The Meaning of 'Meaning'" in 1975, which describes meaning as both mental and conceptual ideas.
  • The Death of Hialry Putnam

    After contributing greatly to world of Mathematics and Philosophy, Hilary Putnam died from Metastasized Mesothelioma on March 13, 2016.