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Putnam’s Work
Hiliary Putnam was born in Chicago, Illinois mid-1926. Putnam attended numerous highly regarded institutions from the 1940’s to teaching his craft in the 1960’s. Putnam’s life work consisted of philosophy of sciences and mathematics, in addition to a peculiar focus on Logical Positivism. While working at Princeton University, Putnam’s philosophical focus on realism about science and mathematics continues to this day to remain highly influential arguments among the scientific community. -
Putnam’s Philosophy of Science
Putnam ‘(no) miracle argument’, created in 1975 states, scientific realism is philosophy that doesn’t make the success of science a miracle. The argument further discusses the idea that our theories claim to be accurate and complex. What this means is, the fruition and success of a theory does not by necessary mean that it is true if there is no proof or attempt of falsification. -
Putnam’s Philosophy of Mathematics
Like Putnam’s other arguments, the argument of indispensability is best described as mathematical realism. The indispensability argument aimed to show that it would be impossible to explain science without scientific theories that supply true accounts of how things work in the world. In further, science works in mathematical formulations that play an indispensable role in science. -
Putnam’s Legacy
Putnam’s work consistently addresses what he called the ‘realism’ and to this day continues to challenge how we do things, how we prove things, and why. Putnam constantly questioned of how all things science and connects with the world. Putnam believed truth is a matter of simply discovering and stating what is the case in a world that exists independently of the human mind. Among Putnam’s best work is the radical way he questioned early core assumption.
