hilary putnam - cambridge university press putnam...

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Hilary Putnam The richness of Hilary Putnam’s philosophical oeuvre consists not only in the broad spectrum of problems addressed but also in the transformations and re- structuring his positions have undergone over the years. The essays collected in this volume are sensitive to both these dimensions. They discuss Putnam’s major philosophical contributions to the theory of meaning, the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of science and mathematics, and moral theory. But, in addition, tracing threads of change and continuity, they analyze the dynamics underlying the unfolding of Putnam’s thought. The volume also constitutes a critical introduction to a number of central issues in contemporary philoso- phy, including quantum logic, realism, functionalism, the ‘mind as computer’ metaphor, and the fact/value dichotomy. Yemima Ben-Menahem is a member of the Department of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521813115 - Hilary Putnam Edited by Yemima Ben-Menahem Frontmatter More information

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Page 1: Hilary Putnam - Cambridge University Press Putnam TherichnessofHilaryPutnam’sphilosophicaloeuvreconsistsnotonlyinthe broadspectrumofproblemsaddressedbutalsointhetransformationsandre-

Hilary Putnam

The richness of Hilary Putnam’s philosophical oeuvre consists not only in thebroad spectrum of problems addressed but also in the transformations and re-structuring his positions have undergone over the years. The essays collectedin this volume are sensitive to both these dimensions. They discuss Putnam’smajor philosophical contributions to the theory of meaning, the philosophy ofmind, the philosophy of science and mathematics, and moral theory. But, inaddition, tracing threads of change and continuity, they analyze the dynamicsunderlying the unfolding of Putnam’s thought. The volume also constitutes acritical introduction to a number of central issues in contemporary philoso-phy, including quantum logic, realism, functionalism, the ‘mind as computer’metaphor, and the fact/value dichotomy.

Yemima Ben-Menahem is a member of the Department of Philosophy at theHebrew University of Jerusalem.

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press0521813115 - Hilary PutnamEdited by Yemima Ben-MenahemFrontmatterMore information

Page 2: Hilary Putnam - Cambridge University Press Putnam TherichnessofHilaryPutnam’sphilosophicaloeuvreconsistsnotonlyinthe broadspectrumofproblemsaddressedbutalsointhetransformationsandre-

Contemporary Philosophy in Focus

Contemporary Philosophy in Focus offers a series of introductory volumesto many of the dominant philosophical thinkers of the current age. Each vol-ume consists of newly commissioned essays that cover major contributions ofa preeminent philosopher in a systematic and accessible manner. Comparablein scope and rationale to the highly successful series Cambridge Companionsto Philosophy, the volumes do not presuppose that readers are already inti-mately familiar with the details of each philosopher’s work. They thus combineexposition and critical analysis in a manner that will appeal to students of phi-losophy and to professionals as well as to students across the humanities andsocial sciences.

forthcoming volumes:

Paul Churchland edited by Brian KeeleyRonald Dworkin edited by Arthur RipsteinJerry Fodor edited by Tim CraneSaul Kripke edited by Alan BergerDavid Lewis edited by Theodore Sider and Dean ZimmermannBernard Williams edited by Alan Thomas

published volumes:

Stanley Cavell edited by Richard EldridgeDonald Davidson edited by Kirk LudwigDaniel Dennett edited by Andrew Brook and Don RossThomas Kuhn edited by Thomas NicklesAlasdair MacIntyre edited by Mark MurphyRichard Rorty edited by Charles Guignon and David HileyJohn Searle edited by Barry SmithCharles Taylor edited by Ruth Abbey

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press0521813115 - Hilary PutnamEdited by Yemima Ben-MenahemFrontmatterMore information

Page 3: Hilary Putnam - Cambridge University Press Putnam TherichnessofHilaryPutnam’sphilosophicaloeuvreconsistsnotonlyinthe broadspectrumofproblemsaddressedbutalsointhetransformationsandre-

Hilary Putnam

Edited by

YEMIMA BEN-MENAHEMThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press0521813115 - Hilary PutnamEdited by Yemima Ben-MenahemFrontmatterMore information

Page 4: Hilary Putnam - Cambridge University Press Putnam TherichnessofHilaryPutnam’sphilosophicaloeuvreconsistsnotonlyinthe broadspectrumofproblemsaddressedbutalsointhetransformationsandre-

published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridgeThe Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

cambridge university pressThe Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK40 West 20th Street, New York,NY 10011-4211, USA477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, AustraliaRuiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, SpainDock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa

http://www.cambridge.org

C© Cambridge University Press 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place withoutthe written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2005

Printed in the United States of America

Typefaces Janson Text 10/13 pt. and ITC Officina Sans System LATEX2ε [TB]

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Hilary Putnam / edited by Yemima Ben-Menahem.p. cm. – (Contemporary philosophy in focus)

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-521-81311-5 – ISBN 0-521-01254-6 (pbk.)1. Putnam, Hilary. I. Ben-Menahem, Yemima, 1946– II. Series.B945.P874H54 2004191 – dc22

2004048193

ISBN 0 521 81311 5 hardbackISBN 0 521 01254 6 paperback

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press0521813115 - Hilary PutnamEdited by Yemima Ben-MenahemFrontmatterMore information

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Contents

List of Contributors page ixAcknowledgments xi

1 Introduction 1yemima ben-menahem

2 Putnam’s “The Meaning of ‘Meaning’”: Externalism inHistorical Context 17juliet floyd

3 The Face of Perception 53charles travis

4 Realism, Beyond Miracles 83axel mueller and arthur fine

5 Putnam on Skepticism 125yemima ben-menahem

6 The Tale of Quantum Logic 156tim maudlin

7 Another Philosopher Looks at Quantum Mechanics, or WhatQuantum Theory Is Not 188nancy cartwright

8 Structural Realism and Contextual Individuality 203john stachel

9 The Rise and Fall of Computational Functionalism 220oron shagrir

10 The Pragmatic Turn: The Entanglement of Fact and Value 251richard j. bernstein

Index 267

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Contributors

yemima ben-menahem is a member of the Department of Philosophy atthe Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In her publications she has addresseda range of classic problems in the philosophy of science, including expla-nation, causality, and realism. Her Conventionalism is forthcoming fromCambridge University Press.

richard j. bernstein is Vera List Professor of Philosophy and dean of thegraduate faculty atNewSchoolUniversity inNewYorkCity.Hehaswrittenwidely on political theory, American pragmatism, and critical theory. Hisbooks include Praxis and Action (1971), Beyond Objectivism and Relativism:Science, Hermeneutics and Praxis (1983), Freud and the Vexed Legacy of Moses(1998), and Radical Evil: A Philosophical Interrogation (2002).

nancy cartwright is a professor of philosophy in the Department ofPhilosophy, London School of Economics and Political Science, and chairof the London School of Economics Centre for Philosophy of Naturaland Social Science. She is also a professor of philosophy at the Universityof California, San Diego. Among her books are How the Laws of Physics Lie(1983),Nature’s Capacities and TheirMeasurement (1989),TheDappledWorld:A Study of the Boundaries of Science (1999), andMeasuring Causes: Invariance,Modularity and the Causal Markov Condition (2000).

arthur fine is a professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of physicsat the University of Washington. He has served as president of the Philos-ophy of Science Association and of the Central Division of the AmericanPhilosophical Association. His works in the philosophy of science focus,in particular, on the foundations of twentieth-century physics and include,among others, The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism and the Quantum Theory(1986; 2d ed. 1996).

juliet floyd is an associate professor of philosophy at Boston Univer-sity. She has published on Kant, Wittgenstein, and the philosophy of

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x Contributors

mathematics and coedited Future Pasts: Perspectives on the Analytic Tradi-tion in Twentieth-Century Philosophy (2001).

tim maudlin is a professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. His twomain research areas are metaphysics and the philosophy of physics. Theauthor of Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity (1994), he has two booksforthcoming from Oxford University Press: Truth and Paradox: Solving theRiddles andMetaphysics Within Physics.

axel mueller, of the Department of Philosophy at Northwestern Univer-sity,works in pragmatism, the philosophyof language, and the philosophyofscience. His Referenz und Fallibilismus (2001) is a study of Putnam’s thought.

john stachel is a professor emeritus of physics and director of the Centerfor Einstein Studies at Boston University. Founder of the Collected Papersof Albert Einstein, he has published extensively in the history and philoso-phy of theoretical physics, especially on the general theory of relativity. Hismost recent book is Einstein from ‘B’ to ‘Z’ (2002).

oron shagrir is a member of the Department of Philosophy and chair ofthe program in Cognitive Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.His areas of expertise include the philosophy of mind, cognitive science,and the history and philosophy of computing. His recent papers have beenpublished inMind, Synthese, theMonist, Minds and Machines, and TheoreticalComputer Science.

charles travis is a professor of philosophy atNorthwesternUniversity.Heworks in the philosophy ofmind and the philosophy of language, focusing inparticular on the interpretation of Wittgenstein’s philosophy in these areas.His books include The Uses of Sense: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Language(1989), Unshadowed Thought (2000), and Les Liaisons Ordinaires (2002).

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press0521813115 - Hilary PutnamEdited by Yemima Ben-MenahemFrontmatterMore information

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Acknowledgments

The papers collected here have not been published before. I would like tothank the authors for their responsiveness and patience during the editorialprocess. I would also like to thank Hilary Putnam, teacher and friend, whoover the years has been a source of inspiration and encouragement.

Terence Moore of Cambridge University Press invited me to edit thisvolume and provided assistance throughout the process. His recent death isa great loss to the philosophical community. The many volumes he broughtinto the world, however, are a lasting tribute to his vision.

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© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press0521813115 - Hilary PutnamEdited by Yemima Ben-MenahemFrontmatterMore information