Contemporary Philosophy In Focus

280 Pages·2009·3 MB·English

by  Christopher W. Morris

Hilary Putnam
TherichnessofHilaryPutnam’sphilosophicaloeuvreconsistsnotonlyinthe
broadspectrumofproblemsaddressedbutalsointhetransformationsandre-
structuringhispositionshaveundergoneovertheyears.Theessayscollected
inthisvolumearesensitivetoboththesedimensions.TheydiscussPutnam’s
majorphilosophicalcontributionstothetheoryofmeaning,thephilosophyof
mind, the philosophy of science and mathematics, and moral theory. But, in
addition,tracingthreadsofchangeandcontinuity,theyanalyzethedynamics
underlyingtheunfoldingofPutnam’sthought.Thevolumealsoconstitutesa
critical introduction to a number of central issues in contemporary philoso-
phy,includingquantumlogic,realism,functionalism,the‘mindascomputer’
metaphor,andthefact/valuedichotomy.
YemimaBen-MenahemisamemberoftheDepartmentofPhilosophyatthe
HebrewUniversityofJerusalem.
Contemporary Philosophy in Focus
ContemporaryPhilosophyinFocusoffersaseriesofintroductoryvolumes
tomanyofthedominantphilosophicalthinkersofthecurrentage.Eachvol-
umeconsistsofnewlycommissionedessaysthatcovermajorcontributionsof
apreeminentphilosopherinasystematicandaccessiblemanner.Comparable
inscopeandrationaletothehighlysuccessfulseriesCambridgeCompanions
to Philosophy, the volumes do not presuppose that readers are already inti-
matelyfamiliarwiththedetailsofeachphilosopher’swork.Theythuscombine
expositionandcriticalanalysisinamannerthatwillappealtostudentsofphi-
losophy and to professionals as well as to students across the humanities and
socialsciences.
forthcoming volumes:
PaulChurchlandeditedbyBrianKeeley
RonaldDworkineditedbyArthurRipstein
JerryFodoreditedbyTimCrane
SaulKripkeeditedbyAlanBerger
DavidLewiseditedbyTheodoreSiderandDeanZimmermann
BernardWilliamseditedbyAlanThomas
published volumes:
StanleyCavelleditedbyRichardEldridge
DonaldDavidsoneditedbyKirkLudwig
DanielDennetteditedbyAndrewBrookandDonRoss
ThomasKuhneditedbyThomasNickles
AlasdairMacIntyreeditedbyMarkMurphy
RichardRortyeditedbyCharlesGuignonandDavidHiley
JohnSearleeditedbyBarrySmith
CharlesTayloreditedbyRuthAbbey
Hilary Putnam
Edited by
YEMIMA BEN-MENAHEM
TheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem
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Contents
List of Contributors page ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction 1
yemimaben-menahem
2 Putnam’s “The Meaning of ‘Meaning’”: Externalism in
Historical Context 17
julietfloyd
3 The Face of Perception 53
charlestravis
4 Realism, Beyond Miracles 83
axelmuellerandarthurfine
5 Putnam on Skepticism 125
yemimaben-menahem
6 The Tale of Quantum Logic 156
timmaudlin
7 Another Philosopher Looks at Quantum Mechanics, or What
Quantum Theory Is Not 188
nancycartwright
8 Structural Realism and Contextual Individuality 203
johnstachel
9 The Rise and Fall of Computational Functionalism 220
oronshagrir
10 The Pragmatic Turn: The Entanglement of Fact and Value 251
richardj.bernstein
Index 267
vii
Contributors
yemima ben-menahem is a member of the Department of Philosophy at
theHebrewUniversityofJerusalem.Inherpublicationsshehasaddressed
a range of classic problems in the philosophy of science, including expla-
nation, causality, and realism. Her Conventionalism is forthcoming from
CambridgeUniversityPress.
richardj.bernsteinisVeraListProfessorofPhilosophyanddeanofthe
graduatefacultyatNewSchoolUniversityinNewYorkCity.Hehaswritten
widely on political theory, American pragmatism, and critical theory. His
books include Praxis and Action (1971), Beyond Objectivism and Relativism:
Science,HermeneuticsandPraxis(1983),FreudandtheVexedLegacyofMoses
(1998),andRadicalEvil:APhilosophicalInterrogation(2002).
nancy cartwright is a professor of philosophy in the Department of
Philosophy,LondonSchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience,andchair
of the London School of Economics Centre for Philosophy of Natural
andSocialScience.SheisalsoaprofessorofphilosophyattheUniversity
ofCalifornia,SanDiego.AmongherbooksareHowtheLawsofPhysicsLie
(1983),Nature’sCapacitiesandTheirMeasurement(1989),TheDappledWorld:
AStudyoftheBoundariesofScience(1999),andMeasuringCauses:Invariance,
ModularityandtheCausalMarkovCondition(2000).
arthurfineisaprofessorofphilosophyandadjunctprofessorofphysics
attheUniversityofWashington.HehasservedaspresidentofthePhilos-
ophy of Science Association and of the Central Division of the American
Philosophical Association. His works in the philosophy of science focus,
inparticular,onthefoundationsoftwentieth-centuryphysicsandinclude,
among others, The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism and the Quantum Theory
(1986;2ded.1996).
juliet floyd is an associate professor of philosophy at Boston Univer-
sity. She has published on Kant, Wittgenstein, and the philosophy of
ix
x Contributors
mathematics and coedited Future Pasts: Perspectives on the Analytic Tradi-
tioninTwentieth-CenturyPhilosophy(2001).
tim maudlin is a professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. His two
main research areas are metaphysics and the philosophy of physics. The
author of Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity (1994), he has two books
forthcomingfromOxfordUniversityPress:TruthandParadox:Solvingthe
RiddlesandMetaphysicsWithinPhysics.
axelmueller,oftheDepartmentofPhilosophyatNorthwesternUniver-
sity,worksinpragmatism,thephilosophyoflanguage,andthephilosophyof
science.HisReferenzundFallibilismus(2001)isastudyofPutnam’sthought.
johnstachelisaprofessoremeritusofphysicsanddirectoroftheCenter
forEinsteinStudiesatBostonUniversity.FounderoftheCollectedPapers
ofAlbertEinstein,hehaspublishedextensivelyinthehistoryandphiloso-
phyoftheoreticalphysics,especiallyonthegeneraltheoryofrelativity.His
mostrecentbookisEinsteinfrom‘B’to‘Z’(2002).
oronshagririsamemberoftheDepartmentofPhilosophyandchairof
theprograminCognitiveScienceattheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem.
His areas of expertise include the philosophy of mind, cognitive science,
andthehistoryandphilosophyofcomputing.Hisrecentpapershavebeen
publishedinMind,Synthese,theMonist,MindsandMachines,andTheoretical
ComputerScience.
charlestravisisaprofessorofphilosophyatNorthwesternUniversity.He
worksinthephilosophyofmindandthephilosophyoflanguage,focusingin
particularontheinterpretationofWittgenstein’sphilosophyintheseareas.
His books include The Uses of Sense: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Language
(1989),UnshadowedThought(2000),andLesLiaisonsOrdinaires(2002).
Acknowledgments
Thepaperscollectedherehavenotbeenpublishedbefore.Iwouldliketo
thanktheauthorsfortheirresponsivenessandpatienceduringtheeditorial
process.IwouldalsoliketothankHilaryPutnam,teacherandfriend,who
overtheyearshasbeenasourceofinspirationandencouragement.
TerenceMooreofCambridgeUniversityPressinvitedmetoeditthis
volumeandprovidedassistancethroughouttheprocess.Hisrecentdeathis
agreatlosstothephilosophicalcommunity.Themanyvolumeshebrought
intotheworld,however,arealastingtributetohisvision.
xi
1
Introduction
YEMIMA BEN-MENAHEM
In many ways Hilary Putnam’s writings constitute the ideal introduction
to his thought. For they are not only lucid and accessible, but also self-
reflective,providingnumeroussignpoststohisphilosophicalmotivations,
changes of mind and sources of inspiration. Rather than simply ‘intro-
ducing’Putnam’sthought,therefore,thepaperscollectedherearemostly
interpretative,seeking,inparticular,totracechangesinthebroaderphilo-
sophicalenvironmentPutnam’sthoughtwaspartof–changesthatinmany
cases were precipitated by his novel ideas – and chart the transformation
ofPutnam’sownthinkingagainstthebackgroundofthesedevelopments.
IntracingtheevolutionofPutnam’sthought,theyprovideawindowonto
the dynamics of the Anglo-American philosophical arena since Putnam’s
emergence, in the 1960s, as a leading philosopher. One such transforma-
tionisthedemiseoflogicalpositivism,stilldominantinPutnam’sformative
years, and a growing interest in Wittgenstein and American pragmatism.
A related trend is the shift away from the philosophy of science, which
losestheprimacyitenjoyedinthe1950sand1960s,andthecorrespond-
ing repositioning of the philosophy of mind, which takes its place. Most
significant,perhaps,istheincreasingsalienceoftheethicalperspectivein
thewakeofthegrowingdesirethatphilosophyplayamoredirectrolein
ourlives.
Putnam,whohasalwaysbeenpoliticallyengaged,neverdistancedhim-
self from the ethical. Professionally, however, he was educated in analytic
philosophyatatimewhenittendedtorelegateethicalandexistentialissues
tothesidelines.Ashisthoughtmatured,hebecameincreasinglyeagerto
counterthistendency,andhislaterworksbearsuchethicallyorientedtitles
asRenewingPhilosophy,RealismwithaHumanFace,WordsandLife.
Hilary Putnam was born in Chicago in 1926. At the University of
Pennsylvania, where he earned his undergraduate degree, Putnam ma-
jored,alongwithNoamChomsky,intheemergingfieldoflinguisticanal-
ysis.HisgraduatestudiesweredividedbetweenHarvardUniversity,where
he studied with Quine, Hao Wang, C. I. Lewis and Morton White, and
1