Philosophical Papers

by Hilary Putnam

• ISBN13: 9780521313940
• ISBN10: 0521313945
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1985-12-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the third volume of Hilary Putnam's philosophical papers, published in paperback for the first time. The volume contains his major essays from 1975 to 1982, which reveal a large shift in emphasis in the 'realist' position developed in his earlier work. While not renouncing those views, Professor Putnam has continued to explore their epistemological consequences and conceptual history. He now, crucially, sees theories of truth and of meaning that derive from a firm notion of reference as inadequate.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Models and reality	1	(25)
Equivalence	26	(20)
Possibility and necessity	46	(23)
Reference and truth	69	(18)
`Two dogmas' revisited	87	(11)
There is at least one a priori truth	98	(17)
Analyticity and apriority: beyond Wittgenstein and Quine	115	(24)
Computational psychology and interpretation theory	139	(16)
Reflections on Goodman's Ways of Worldmaking	155	(15)
Convention: a theme in philosophy	170	(14)
Philosophers and human understanding	184	(21)
Why there isn't a ready-made world	205	(24)
Why reason can't be naturalized	229	(19)
Quantum mechanics and the observer	248	(23)
Vagueness and alternative logic	271	(16)
Beyond historicism	287	(17)
Bibliography	304	(5)
Acknowledgements	309	(1)
Index	310