Words and Life

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Harvard University Press, 1994 - 531 páginas

Hilary Putnam has been convinced for some time that the present situation in philosophy calls for revitalization and renewal; in this latest book he shows us what shape he would like that renewal to take. Words and Life offers a sweeping account of the sources of several of the central problems of philosophy, past and present, and of why some of those problems are not going to go away. As the titles of the first four parts in the volume-"The Return of Aristotle," "The Legacy of Logical Positivism," "The Inheritance of Pragmatism," and "Essays after Wittgenstein"-suggest, many of the essays are concerned with tracing the recent, and the not so recent, history of these problems.

The goal is to bring out what is coercive and arbitrary about some of our present ways of posing the problems and what is of continuing interest in certain past approaches to them. Various supposedly timeless philosophical problems appear, on closer inspection, to change with altered historical circumstances, while there turns out to be much of permanent value in Aristotle's, Peirce's, Dewey's, and Reichenbach's work on some of the problems that continue to exercise us.

A unifying theme of the volume as a whole is that reductionism, scientism, and old-style disenchanted naturalism tend to be obstacles to philosophical progress. The titles of the final three parts of the volume-"Truth and Reference," "Mind and Language," and "The Diversity of the Sciences"-indicate that the sweep of the problems considered here comprehends all the fundamental areas of contemporary analytic philosophy. Rich in detail, the book is also grand in scope, allowing us to trace the ongoing intellectual evolution of one of the most significant philosophers of the century.

 

Índice

Introduction by James Conant
xi
Aristotle after Wittgenstein
62
Logical Positivism and Intentionality
85
Reichenbachs Metaphysical Picture
99
Reichenbach and the Myth of the Given
115
Reichenbach and the Limits of Vindication
131
Pragmatism and Moral Objectivity
151
Universal Values
182
The Question of Realism
295
On Truth
315
Something Else
330
Model Theory and the Factuality
351
Probability and the Mental
376
Much Ado about
391
Fodors The Modularity
403
Reflexive Reflections
416

Epistemology as Hypothesis
198
Education for Democracy
221
Rethinking Mathematical Necessity
245
Does the Disquotational Theory of Truth Solve
264
Realism without Absolutes
279
Reductionism and the Nature of Psychology
428
Why Functionalism Didnt Work
441
The Diversity of the Sciences
463
Credits
523
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Otras ediciones - Ver todo

Words and Life
Hilary Putnam
Vista de fragmentos - 1994

Términos y frases comunes

accept argue argument Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's believe brain Burnyeat called Cambridge Carnap causal Chapter claim cognitive computational conception described Dewey Dewey's discussion empirical empiricism epistemology essay ethical example experience explain fact Fodor Frege function Hilary Putnam holism human hypothesis idea inductive logic inquiry interpretation Jerry Fodor Kant kind knowledge language laws logical positivism mathematical matter meaning metalanguage metaphysical realism mind module nature normative Nussbaum objects observation perception philosophical philosophy of mathematics philosophy of mind Philosophy of Science physical physicalistic picture possible prediction probability problem properties psychology Putnam quantum mechanics question Quine Quine's rational reason reference Reichenbach reject relation relative Rorty Rorty's scientific seems semantic sense sentence simply Snow is white sort speak speaker statement synonymy talk Tarski theory things thought tion translation true Turing machine University Press W. V. Quine Wittgenstein words

Sobre el autor (1994)

According to John Passmore, Hilary Putnam's work is a "history of recent philosophy in outline" (Recent Philosophers). He adds that writing "about "Putnam's philosophy' is like trying to capture the wind with a fishing-net." Born in Chicago and educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at Los Angeles, Putnam taught at Northwestern University, Princeton University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to Harvard University in 1965. In his early years at Harvard, he was an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam. Although he writes in the idiom of analytic philosophy, Putnam addresses major themes relating science to ethics and epistemology. If these themes are reminiscent of David Hume---as, for that matter, is much of analytic philosophy---his treatment of them is not. Putnam's work is far more profoundly shaped by recent work in logic, foundations of mathematics, and science than would have been possible for Hume; Putnam has contributed to each. He differs from Hume and stands more in the tradition of Willard Quine and American pragmatism in his treatment of the crucial distinctions between analytic and synthetic statements and between facts and values. Both distinctions, sharply made by Hume, are claimed by Putnam not to be absolute. He attempts to show, for example, that basic concepts of philosophy, science, and mathematics all are interrelated, so that mathematics bears more similarity to empirical reasoning than is customarily acknowledged. James Conant is Chester D. Tripp Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago.

Información bibliográfica

TítuloWords and Life
AutorHilary Putnam
EditorJames Conant
ColaboradorJames Conant
Ediciónilustrada, revisada
EditorHarvard University Press, 1994
ISBN0674956079, 9780674956070
N.º de páginas531 páginas
  
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