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Hilary Putnam

Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam.jpg
Born Hilary Whitehall Putnam
(1926-07-31)July 31, 1926
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died March 13, 2016(2016-03-13) (aged 89)
Arlington, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater University of Pennsylvania
Harvard University
UCLA
Spouse(s) Ruth Anna Jacobs
Awards Rolf Schock Prizes in Logic and Philosophy (2011), Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy (2015)
Era 20th-century philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School Analytic
Pragmatism
Main interests
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of science
Philosophy of mathematics
Metaphilosophy
Epistemology
Notable ideas
Multiple realizability
Functionalism
Causal theory of reference
Semantic externalism
Brain in a vat · Twin Earth
Internal realism
Quine–Putnam indispensability thesis
Kreisel–Putnam logic
Davis–Putnam algorithm
Rietdijk–Putnam argument

Hilary Whitehall Putnam (July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions to philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science. At the time of his death, Putnam was Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University.

He was known for his willingness to apply an equal degree of scrutiny to his own philosophical positions as to those of others, subjecting each position to rigorous analysis until he exposed its flaws. As a result, he acquired a reputation for frequently changing his own position.

In philosophy of mind, Putnam is known for his argument against the type-identity of mental and physical states based on his hypothesis of the multiple realizability of the mental, and for the concept of functionalism, an influential theory regarding the mind–body problem. In philosophy of language, along with Saul Kripke and others, he developed the causal theory of reference, and formulated an original theory of meaning, introducing the notion of semantic externalism based on a famous thought experiment called Twin Earth.

In philosophy of mathematics, he and his mentor W. V. Quine developed the "Quine–Putnam indispensability thesis", an argument for the reality of mathematical entities, later espousing the view that mathematics is not purely logical, but "quasi-empirical". In the field of epistemology, he is known for his critique of the well known "brain in a vat" thought experiment. This thought experiment appears to provide a powerful argument for epistemological skepticism, but Putnam challenges its coherence.


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