Philosophy as Dialogue
A collection of Hilary Putnam’s stimulating, incisive responses to such varied and eminent thinkers as Richard Rorty, Jürgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky, Martha Nussbaum, W. V. Quine, Wilfrid Sellars, John McDowell, and Cornel West.

Hilary Putnam (1926–2016) was renowned—some would say infamous—for changing his philosophical positions over the course of his long and much-admired career. This collection of essays, the first of its kind, showcases how his ideas evolved as he wrestled with the work of his contemporaries.

Divided into five thematic sections, Philosophy as Dialogue begins with questions of language and formal logic, tracing Putnam’s reactions to the arguments of Wilfrid Sellars, Noam Chomsky, Charles Travis, and Tyler Burge. Next, it brings together Putnam’s responses to realists and antirealists, philosophers of science and of perception, followed by forays into pragmatism and skepticism. While Putnam devoted most of his efforts to logic, mathematics, and the philosophy of mind, he also took up issues in moral philosophy, politics, and religion. Here we read him in conversation with giants of these fields, including Martha Nussbaum, Jürgen Habermas, Elizabeth Anscombe, Cora Diamond, Richard Rorty, and Franz Rosenzweig. Finally, Philosophy as Dialogue presents Putnam’s deeply personal and largely unknown writing on philosophical method that reveals the influence of W. V. Quine, Michael Dummett, and Stanley Cavell on his work.

Once more, Mario De Caro and David Macarthur have presented and introduced a choice selection of Hilary Putnam’s writings that will change the way he is understood. Most of all, these thirty-six replies and responses to his contemporaries showcase the extraordinary—perhaps even unparalleled—breadth of his work, and his capacity to engage deeply with seemingly every mode of philosophy.

1140940183
Philosophy as Dialogue
A collection of Hilary Putnam’s stimulating, incisive responses to such varied and eminent thinkers as Richard Rorty, Jürgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky, Martha Nussbaum, W. V. Quine, Wilfrid Sellars, John McDowell, and Cornel West.

Hilary Putnam (1926–2016) was renowned—some would say infamous—for changing his philosophical positions over the course of his long and much-admired career. This collection of essays, the first of its kind, showcases how his ideas evolved as he wrestled with the work of his contemporaries.

Divided into five thematic sections, Philosophy as Dialogue begins with questions of language and formal logic, tracing Putnam’s reactions to the arguments of Wilfrid Sellars, Noam Chomsky, Charles Travis, and Tyler Burge. Next, it brings together Putnam’s responses to realists and antirealists, philosophers of science and of perception, followed by forays into pragmatism and skepticism. While Putnam devoted most of his efforts to logic, mathematics, and the philosophy of mind, he also took up issues in moral philosophy, politics, and religion. Here we read him in conversation with giants of these fields, including Martha Nussbaum, Jürgen Habermas, Elizabeth Anscombe, Cora Diamond, Richard Rorty, and Franz Rosenzweig. Finally, Philosophy as Dialogue presents Putnam’s deeply personal and largely unknown writing on philosophical method that reveals the influence of W. V. Quine, Michael Dummett, and Stanley Cavell on his work.

Once more, Mario De Caro and David Macarthur have presented and introduced a choice selection of Hilary Putnam’s writings that will change the way he is understood. Most of all, these thirty-six replies and responses to his contemporaries showcase the extraordinary—perhaps even unparalleled—breadth of his work, and his capacity to engage deeply with seemingly every mode of philosophy.

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Overview

A collection of Hilary Putnam’s stimulating, incisive responses to such varied and eminent thinkers as Richard Rorty, Jürgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky, Martha Nussbaum, W. V. Quine, Wilfrid Sellars, John McDowell, and Cornel West.

Hilary Putnam (1926–2016) was renowned—some would say infamous—for changing his philosophical positions over the course of his long and much-admired career. This collection of essays, the first of its kind, showcases how his ideas evolved as he wrestled with the work of his contemporaries.

Divided into five thematic sections, Philosophy as Dialogue begins with questions of language and formal logic, tracing Putnam’s reactions to the arguments of Wilfrid Sellars, Noam Chomsky, Charles Travis, and Tyler Burge. Next, it brings together Putnam’s responses to realists and antirealists, philosophers of science and of perception, followed by forays into pragmatism and skepticism. While Putnam devoted most of his efforts to logic, mathematics, and the philosophy of mind, he also took up issues in moral philosophy, politics, and religion. Here we read him in conversation with giants of these fields, including Martha Nussbaum, Jürgen Habermas, Elizabeth Anscombe, Cora Diamond, Richard Rorty, and Franz Rosenzweig. Finally, Philosophy as Dialogue presents Putnam’s deeply personal and largely unknown writing on philosophical method that reveals the influence of W. V. Quine, Michael Dummett, and Stanley Cavell on his work.

Once more, Mario De Caro and David Macarthur have presented and introduced a choice selection of Hilary Putnam’s writings that will change the way he is understood. Most of all, these thirty-six replies and responses to his contemporaries showcase the extraordinary—perhaps even unparalleled—breadth of his work, and his capacity to engage deeply with seemingly every mode of philosophy.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674281356
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 10/18/2022
Pages: 368
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Hilary Putnam was Cogan University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

Mario De Caro is Hilary Putnam’s literary executor and Professor of Moral Philosophy at Roma Tre University. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Philosophical Association, a regular visiting professor at Tufts University, and author of five volumes in Italian.

David Macarthur is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. With Mario De Caro, he edited Naturalism in Question, Naturalism and Normativity, and Hilary Putnam’s Philosophy in an Age of Science. He also edited Hilary and Ruth Anna Putnam’s Pragmatism as a Way of Life.

Table of Contents

Editors' Introduction. Hilary Putnam: Dialogical Philosopher 1

Part I Language and Logic

Language, Meaning, and Reference

1 On Meaning and Rules (1974) Wilfrid Sellars 11

2 On Reference (1983) Gareth Evans 22

3 Scientism and Explaining Language (1993) Noam Chomsky 27

4 On Meaning and Belief (1993) Akeel Bilgrami 36

5 On Quine and Putnam on Analtyticity (2013) Axel Mueller 45

6 On Thought and Language (2015) Tyler Burge 49

Logic

7 On Logical Truths (1994) George Boolos 63

8 On Mind-Independence and Quantum Logic (2001, 2002) Charles Travis 66

Part II Realism and Antirealism

Conceptual Relativity

9 On Conceptual Relativism (1987) Donald Davidson 83

10 On Conceptual Pluralism and Conceptual Relativity (2001) Jennifer Case 93

Internal Realism

11 On Internal Realism (1993) David L. Anderson 101

12 On Perception and Internal Realism (1993) Richard W. Miller 113

13 On Internal Realism (1994) Simon Blackburn 120

14 On Realism and Idealism (1994) Michael Dummett 138

Empiricism and Philosophy of Science

15 On Philosophy of Science (1984) Ian Hacking 147

16 On Empiricism and Conventionalism (1994) Rudolf Carnap Thomas Ricketts 152

17 On Quantum Mechanics (2013) David Albert 154

Philosophy of Perception

18 On the Qualitative Character of Experience (2013) Ned Block 158

19 On Perception (2013) John McDowell 161

Part III Pragmatism and Skepticism

Pragmatism

20 On Deweyan and Prophetic Pragmatism (2001) Cornel West 177

21 On Pragmatism (2002) Robert Brandom 202

22 On Pragmatism (2013) Ruth Anna Putnam 213

Skepticism and Relativism

23 On the Brain-in-a-Vat (1994) Crispin Wright 216

24 On Relativism and Pluralism (2006) Joseph Margolis 223

Part IV Morality, Politics, and Religion

Moral Philosophy

25 On Moral Rules and The Golden Bowl (1983) Martha Nussbaum 239

26 On Semantic Externalism (1994) David Wiggins 248

27 On Moral Philosophy (2002) Jürgen Habermas 251

28 On Morality and Mathematics (2006) David Copp 265

29 On Morality (2006) Mark Timmons 271

Philosophy of Politics and Religion

30 On Religion (1997) Elizabeth Anscombe Cora Diamond 281

31 On Political Hope (1998) Richard Rorty 284

32 On Religion (2016) Franz Rosenzweig 286

Part V Putnam's Philosophical Forbears

Textual Interpretation

33 On the Tractatus (1998) Ludwig Wittgenstein Juliet Floyd 299

34 On Quine and Wittgenstein (2000) Burton Dreben 306

35 On Quine's Radically (2002) W. V. O. Quine 319

Major Philosophical Influences

36 12 Philosophers-and Their Influence on Me (2008) 327

Credits 347

Index 351

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