View source for Hilary Putnam

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{{Infobox Philosopher
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|region          = Western Philosophy
|era             = [[20th-century philosophy]]
|color           = #B0C4DE
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|image_name      = Hilary Putnam.jpg
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|name             = Hilary Whitehall Putnam
|birth_date       = July 31, 1926
|birth_place = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], [[United States|U.S.]]
|school_tradition = [[Analytic philosophy|Analytic]]
|main_interests   = [[Philosophy of mind]]<br />[[Philosophy of language]]<br />[[Philosophy of mathematics]]<br />[[Metaphilosophy]]<br />[[Epistemology]]
|notable_ideas    = [[Multiple realizability]]<br />[[Functionalism (philosophy of mind)|Functionalism]]<br />[[Causal theory of reference]]<br />[[Semantic externalism]]<br />[[Brain in a vat]]{{·}} [[Twin Earth]]<br />[[Philosophical realism|Internal realism]]
|influences       = [[Willard Van Orman Quine|W.V.O. Quine]]{{·}} [[Hans Reichenbach]]<br />[[Alan Turing]]{{·}} [[Immanuel Kant]]<br />[[Nelson Goodman]]{{·}} [[Charles Sanders Peirce]]<br />[[William James]]{{·}} [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]]<br />[[Søren Kierkegaard]]{{·}} [[Karl Marx]]<br /> [[Sigmund Freud]]<ref>Borradori, G et al. ''The American Philosopher'', p. 58</ref>
|influenced       = [[Jerry Fodor]]{{·}} [[Ned Block]]<br />[[Joseph LeDoux]]{{·}} [[Tyler Burge]]<br />[[David Marr (psychologist)|David Marr]]{{·}} [[Daniel Dennett]]<br />[[David Lewis (philosopher)|David Lewis]]{{·}} [[Donald Davidson (philosopher)|Donald Davidson]]
}}
{{portalpar|Logic}}
'''Hilary Whitehall Putnam''' (born July 31, 1926) is an American [[philosopher]] who has been a central figure in [[analytic philosophy]] since the 1960s, especially in [[philosophy of mind]], [[philosophy of language]], and [[philosophy of science]].<ref name="CR">Casati R., "Hillary Putnam" in ''Enciclopedia Garzanti della Filosofia'', ed. [[Gianni Vattimo]]. 2004. Garzanti Editori. Milan. ISBN 88-11-50515-1</ref> He is known for his willingness to apply an equal degree of scrutiny to his own philosophical positions as to those of others, subjecting each position to rigorous analysis until he exposes its flaws.<ref name=King170>[[Peter J. King|King, P.J.]] ''One Hundred Philosophers: The Life and Work of the World's Greatest Thinkers''. Barron's 2004, p. 170.</ref> As a result, he has acquired a reputation for frequently changing his own position.<ref>{{cite web|author=Jack Ritchie|title=TPM:Philosopher of the Month|url=http://www.philosophers.co.uk/cafe/phil_jun2002.htm|month=June | year=2002|accessdate=2006-08-01 }}</ref>

In philosophy of mind, Putnam is known for his argument against the [[type physicalism|type-identity]] of mental and physical states based on his hypothesis of the [[multiple realizability]] of the mental, and for the concept of [[functionalism (philosophy of mind)|functionalism]], an influential theory regarding the [[mind-body problem]].<ref name="CR" /><ref>{{cite book|author=LeDoux, J. |title=The Synaptic Self; How Our Brains Become Who We Are| publisher=Viking Penguin|location=New York|year=2002|isbn=88-7078-795-8}}</ref> In philosophy of language, along with [[Saul Kripke]] and others, he developed the [[causal theory of reference]], and formulated an original theory of meaning, inventing the notion of [[externalism|semantic externalism]] based on a famous [[thought experiment]] called [[Twin Earth thought experiment|Twin Earth]].<ref name="CH">P. Clark-B. Hale (eds.), "Reading Putnam", Blackwell, Cambridge (Massachusetts)-Oxford 1995.</ref>

In [[philosophy of mathematics]], he and his mentor [[Willard Van Orman Quine|W. V. Quine]] developed the "Quine-Putnam indispensability thesis," an argument for the reality of mathematical entities,<ref>Colyvan, Mark, [http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2004/entries/mathphil-indis/ "Indispensability Arguments in the Philosophy of Mathematics"], The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)</ref> later espousing the view that mathematics is not purely logical, but "[[quasi-empiricism in mathematics|quasi-empirical]]."<ref name="PutBen"> Putnam, H. ''Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings''. Edited with Paul Benacerraf. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964. 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.</ref> In the field of [[epistemology]], he is known for his critique of the well known "[[brain in a vat]]" thought experiment. This thought experiment appears to provide a powerful argument for [[skepticism|epistemological skepticism]], but Putnam challenges its coherence.<ref name="BIV">Putnam, H. (1981): [http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/ph29a/putnam.html "Brains in a vat"] in ''Reason, Truth, and History'', Cambridge University Press; reprinted in DeRose and Warfield, editors (1999): ''Skepticism: A Contemporary Reader'', Oxford UP.</ref> In [[metaphysics]], he originally espoused a position called [[Philosophical realism|metaphysical realism]], but eventually became one of its most outspoken critics, first adopting a view he called "internal realism",<ref name="Human">Putnam, H. ''Realism with a Human Face''. Edited by James Conant. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990.</ref> which he later abandoned in favor of a [[pragmatism|pragmatist]]-inspired [[direct realism]]. Putnam's "direct realism" aims to return the study of metaphysics to the way people actually experience the world, rejecting the idea of mental representations, [[sense data]], and other intermediaries between mind and world.<ref name="Three"> Putnam, H.. ''The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.</ref>

Outside philosophy, Putnam has contributed to [[mathematics]] and [[computer science]]. He developed the [[Davis–Putnam algorithm]] for the [[Boolean satisfiability problem]], with [[Martin Davis]],<ref name="DandP">Davis, M. and Putnam, H. "A computing procedure for quantification theory" in ''[[Journal of the ACM]]'', 7:201–215, 1960.</ref> and helped demonstrate the unsolvability of [[Hilbert's tenth problem]].<ref name="Mat">{{cite book|author=Matiyesavic, Yuri |title=Hilbert's Tenth Problem|publisher=MIT|location=Cambridge|year=1993|isbn=0-262-13295-8}}</ref> He has been at times a politically controversial figure, especially for his involvement with the [[Progressive Labor Party (United States)|Progressive Labor Party]] in the late 1960s and early 1970s.<ref name="Hick">To appear in the "American Philosophers" edition of ''Literary Biography'', ed. Bruccoli, Layman and Clarke</ref><ref name="Foley">{{cite book| author=Foley, M. |title=Confronting the War Machine |publisher=North Carolina Press|location=North Carolina|year=1983|isbn= 0-8078-2767-3}}</ref>

==Biography==
Putnam was born in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]] in 1926. His father, [[Samuel Putnam]], was a journalist and translator who wrote for the ''[[Daily Worker]]'', a publication of the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]]. As a result of his father's commitment to [[communism]], Putnam had a secular upbringing, although his mother, Riva, was [[Jew]]ish.<ref name=King170 /> The family lived in France until 1934, when they returned to the United States, settling in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]].<ref name=King170 /> Putnam attended [[Central High School of Philadelphia|Central High School]]; there he met [[Noam Chomsky]], who was a year behind him. The two have been friends—and often intellectual opponents—ever since.<ref>Robert F. Barsky, ''[http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/chomsky/chomsky/2/7.html Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent]'', Ch. 7, MIT Press, 1997</ref> Putnam studied mathematics and philosophy at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], receiving his [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] (undergraduate degree) and becoming a member of the [[Philomathean Society]], the oldest U.S. literary society.<ref name=King170/><ref name="Hick" /> He went on to do graduate work in philosophy at [[Harvard University]],<ref name=King170/> and later at [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]]'s [[UCLA Department of Philosophy|Philosophy Department]], where he received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in 1951 for a dissertation entitled "The Meaning of the Concept of Probability in Application to Finite Sequences". Putnam's teachers [[Hans Reichenbach]] (his dissertation supervisor) and [[Rudolf Carnap]] were leading figures in [[logical positivism]], the dominant school of philosophy of the day; one of Putnam's most consistent positions has been his rejection of logical positivism as self-defeating.<ref name="Hick"/>

After briefly teaching at [[Northwestern University|Northwestern]], [[Princeton University|Princeton]], and [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], he moved to Harvard in 1965 with his wife, [[Ruth Anna Jacobs]], who also took a teaching position in philosophy at MIT.<ref name="Hick" /> Hilary and Ruth Anna were married in 1962.<ref name="Globe">{{cite web|author=Linda Wertheimer|title=Finding My Religion|url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2006/07/30/finding_my_religion/?page=3|date=July 30, 2006}}</ref> Ruth Anna Jacobs, descendant of an old German scholarship family in Gotha (her ancestor was the German classical scholar [[Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Jacobs]]), was born in [[Berlin]], Germany<ref>Hortsch, Michael.  "Dr. Hans Nathan Kohn – ein Berliner
Jüdischer Arzt und Forscher am Vorabend
des Nationalsozialismus." Berlin Medical, Vol. 4:26-28 August 2007</ref>, in 1927 to anti-[[National Socialist German Workers Party|Nazi]] political-activist parents and, like Putnam himself, she was raised an [[atheism|atheist]].<ref name="Globe" /> The Putnams, rebelling against the [[anti-Semitism]] that they had experienced during their youth, decided to establish a traditional Jewish home for their children.<ref name="Globe" /> Since they had no experience with the rituals of [[Judaism]], they sought out invitations to other Jews' homes for [[Passover Seder|Seder]]. They had "no idea how to do it [themselves]", in the words of Ruth Anna. They therefore began to study Jewish ritual and Hebrew, and became more Jewishly interested, identified, and active. In 1994, Hilary Putnam celebrated a belated [[Bar Mitzvah]] service. His wife had a [[Bat Mitzvah]] service four years later.<ref name="Globe" />

Hilary was a popular teacher at Harvard. In keeping with the family tradition, he was politically active.<ref name="Hick" /> In the 1960s and early 1970s, he was an active supporter of [[American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)|civil rights]] causes and an [[opposition to the Vietnam War|opponent]] of American military intervention in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]].<ref name="Foley" /> In 1963, he organized one of the first faculty and student committees at MIT against the war. He publicly expressed his outrage against the reporting of [[David Halberstam]]. Putnam was disturbed by what he perceived to be a claim by Halberstam that the U.S. was "defending" South Vietnamese peasants from the [[National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam|Vietcong]] by poisoning their rice crops.<ref name="Hick" /> After moving to Harvard in 1965, he organized campus protests and began teaching courses on [[Marxism]]. Hilary became an official faculty advisor to the [[Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)|Students for a Democratic Society]] and, in 1968, became a member of the [[Progressive Labor Party (United States)|Progressive Labor Party]] (PLP).<ref name="Hick" />

After 1968, his political activities were centered on the PLP.<ref name="Foley" /> The Harvard administration considered these activities disruptive and attempted to censure Putnam, but two other faculty members criticized the procedures.<ref>{{cite web|title=Crimson article on Putnam and Harvard admin. |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=356092|date=May 7, 1971|accessdate=2006-08-02}}</ref> Putnam permanently severed his ties with the PLP in 1972.<ref>{{cite web|title=New York Times correction, March 6, 2005|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE1DE1E3DF935A35750C0A9639C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fH%2fHarvard%20University%20|accessdate=2006-08-01}} </ref> In 1997, at a meeting of former draft resistance activists at [[Arlington Street Church (Boston)|Arlington Street Church]] in [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], Putnam described his involvement with the PLP as a mistake. He said that he had been impressed at first with PLP's commitment to alliance-building, and its willingness to attempt to organize from within the armed forces.<ref name="Foley" />

In 1976, he was elected President of the [[American Philosophical Association]]. The following year, he was selected as Walter Beverly Pearson Professor of Mathematical Logic, in recognition of his contributions to [[philosophy of logic]] and mathematics.<ref name="Hick" /> While breaking with his radical past, Putnam has never abandoned his belief that academics have a particular social and ethical responsibility toward society. He has continued to be forthright and [[progressivism|progressive]] in his political views, as expressed in the articles "How Not to Solve Ethical Problems" (1983) and "Education for Democracy" (1993).<ref name="Hick" />

Professor Hilary W. Putnam is a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], and a Corresponding Fellow of the [[British Academy]]. He retired from teaching in June 2000, but, as of 2009, he still gives a seminar almost yearly at [[Tel Aviv University]]. He is the Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. His corpus includes five volumes of collected works, seven books, and more than 200 articles. Putnam's renewed interest in Judaism has inspired him to publish several recent books and essays on the topic.<ref name="chosenness"> http://bostonreview.net/BR29.1/putnam.html </ref> With his wife, he has co-authored several books and essays on the late-19th century American [[pragmatism|pragmatist]] movement.<ref name="Hick" />

==Philosophy of mind==
===Multiple realizability===
[[Image:Reduktionismus.png|thumb|right|An illustration of multiple realizability. ''M'' stands for mental and ''P'' stands for physical. It can be seen that more than one ''P'' can instantiate one ''M'', but not vice versa. Causal relations between states are represented by the arrows (''M1'' goes to ''M2'', etc.)]]
Putnam's best-known work concerns philosophy of mind. His most noted original contributions to that field came in several key papers published in the late 1960s that set out the hypothesis of [[multiple realizability]].<ref name="Bick">Bickle, John [http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2002/entries/multiple-realizability/ "Multiple Realizability"], The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2006 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)</ref> In these papers, Putnam argues that, contrary to the famous claim of the [[type-identity theory]], it is not necessarily true that "[[Pain]] is identical to [[C-fibre]] firing." Pain, according to Putnam's papers, may correspond to utterly different physical states of the nervous system in different organisms, and yet they all experience the same mental state of "being in pain".

Putnam cited examples from the animal kingdom to illustrate his thesis. He asked whether it was likely that the brain structures of diverse types of animals realize pain, or other mental states, the same way. If they do not share the same brain structures, they cannot share the same [[animal cognition|mental states]] and properties. The answer to this puzzle had to be that mental states were realized by different physical states in different species. Putnam then took his argument a step further, asking about such things as the nervous systems of alien beings, artificially [[artificial intelligence|intelligent robots]] and other [[silicon]]-based life forms. These hypothetical entities, he contended, should not be considered incapable of experiencing pain just because they lack the same [[neurochemistry]] as humans. Putnam concluded that type-identity theorists had been making an "ambitious" and "highly implausible" conjecture which could be disproven with one example of multiple realizability.<ref name="MLR"> Putnam, H. (1975) ''Mind, Language and Reality. Philosophical Papers, vol. 2''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. ISBN 88-459-0257-9 </ref> This argument is sometimes referred to as the "likelihood argument".<ref name="Bick" />

Putnam formulated a complementary argument based on what he called "functional isomorphism". He defined the concept in these terms: "Two systems are functionally isomorphic if 'there is a correspondence between the states of one and the states of the other that preserves functional relations'." In the case of computers, two machines are functionally isomorphic if and only if the sequential relations among states in the first are exactly mirrored by the sequential relations among states in the other. Therefore, a computer made out of silicon chips and a computer made out of cogs and wheels can be functionally isomorphic but constitutionally diverse. Functional isomorphism implies multiple realizability.<ref name="MLR" /> This argument is sometimes referred to as an "''[[A priori and a posteriori (philosophy)|a priori]]'' argument".<ref name="Bick" />

[[Jerry Fodor]], Putnam, and others noted that, along with being an effective argument against type-identity theories, multiple realizability implies that any low-level explanation of higher-level mental phenomena is insufficiently abstract and general.<ref name="MLR" /><ref> Fodor, J. (1974) "Special Sciences" in ''Synthese'', 28, pp. 97–115 </ref><ref> Fodor, J. (1980) "The Mind-Body Problem", ''Scientific American'', 244, pp. 124–132 </ref> [[Functionalism (philosophy of mind)|Functionalism]], which identifies mental kinds with functional kinds that are characterized exclusively in terms of causes and effects, abstracts from the level of microphysics, and therefore seemed to be a better explanation of the relation between mind and body. In fact, there are many functional kinds, such as mousetraps, software and bookshelves, which are multiply realized at the physical level.<ref name="MLR" />

===Machine state functionalism===
[[Image:Maquina.png|thumb|right|A [[Turing machine]] can be visualized as an infinite tape of slots that are written or erased one at a time, with the choice of action determined by a "state". According to Putnam's machine-state functionalism, the notions of state in an abstract computer and mental state are essentially the same.]]

The first formulation of such a functionalist theory was put forth by Putnam himself. This formulation, which is now called "machine-state functionalism", was inspired by analogies noted by Putnam and others between the mind and theoretical "[[Turing machine]]s" capable of computing any given [[algorithm]].<ref name="Hill"> C.S. Hill (ed.), "The Philosophy of Hilary Putnam", Fayetteville, Arkansas 1992.</ref>

In non-technical terms, a Turing machine can be visualized as an infinitely long tape divided into squares (the memory) with a box-shaped scanning device that sits over and scans one square of the memory at a time. Each square is either blank (''B'')
or has a ''1'' written on it. These are the inputs to the machine. The possible outputs are:
*Halt: Do nothing.
*''R'': move one square to the right.
*''L'': move one square to the left.
*''B'': erase whatever is on the square.
*''1'': erase whatever is on the square and print a ''1''.

A simple example of a Turing machine which
writes out the sequence '111' after scanning three blank squares and then stopping is specified by the following machine table:

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" class="wikitable"
! ||'''State 1''' || '''State 2''' || '''State 3'''
|-
|B || write 1; stay in state 1 || write 1; stay in state 2 || write 1; stay in state 3
|-
|1 || go right; go to state 2 || go right; go to state 3 || [halt]
|-
|}

This table states that if the machine is in state one and scans a blank square (''B''), it will print a ''1'' and remain in state one. If it is in state one and reads a ''1'', it will move one square to the right and also go into state two. If it is in state two and reads a ''B'', it will print a ''1'' and stay in state two. If it's in state two and reads a ''1'', it will move one square to the right and go into state three. Finally, if it is in state three and reads a ''B'', it prints a ''1'' and remains in state three.<ref> Sipser, M. (1997) ''Introduction to the Theory of Computation''. PWS Publishing Company. Boston, Mass. ISBN 0-534-94728-X </ref>

The point, for functionalism, is the nature of the "states" of the Turing machine. Each state can be defined in terms of its relations to the other states and to the inputs and outputs. State one, for example, is simply the state in which the machine, if it reads a ''B'', writes a ''1'' and stays in that state, and in which, if it reads a ''1'', it moves one square to the right and goes into a different state. This is the functional definition of state one; it is its causal role in the overall system. The details of how it accomplishes what it accomplishes and of its material constitution are completely irrelevant.

According to machine-state functionalism, the nature of a mental state is just like the nature of the automaton states described above. Just as "state one" simply is the state in which, given an input ''B'', such-and-such happens, so being in pain is the state which disposes one to cry "ouch", become distracted, wonder what the cause is, and so forth.<ref>{{cite web|author=Block, Ned |title=What is Functionalism | url=http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/functionalism.html|month=August | year=1983}}</ref>

===Rejection of functionalism===
In the late 1980s, Putnam abandoned his adherence to functionalism and other [[computational theory of mind|computational theories of mind]]. His change of mind was primarily due to the difficulties that computational theories have in explaining certain intuitions with respect to the [[Internalism and externalism|externalism]] of mental content. This is illustrated by Putnam's own [[Twin Earth]] [[thought experiment]] (see ''[[#Philosophy of language|Philosophy of language]]'').<ref name="Three" /> He also developed a separate argument against functionalism in 1988, based on Fodor's generalized version of multiple realizability. Asserting that functionalism is really a watered-down [[identity theory]] in which mental kinds are identified with functional kinds, Putnam argued that mental kinds may be multiply realizable over functional kinds. The argument for functionalism is that the same mental state could be implemented by the different states of a universal Turing machine.<ref> Putnam, Hilary (1988). Representation and Reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.</ref>

Despite Putnam's rejection of functionalism, it has continued to flourish and has been developed into numerous versions by thinkers as diverse as [[David Marr (psychologist)|David Marr]], [[Daniel Dennett]], [[Jerry Fodor]], and [[David Lewis (philosopher)|David Lewis]].<ref name="Mar">Marhaba, Sadi. (2004) ''Funzionalismo''in "Enciclopedia Garzantina della Filosofia" (ed.) [[Gianni Vattimo]]. Milan: Garzanti Editori. ISBN 88-11-50515-1</ref> Functionalism helped lay the foundations for modern [[cognitive science]]<ref name="Mar" /> and is the dominant theory of mind in philosophy today.<ref>Levin, Janet, [http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2004/entries/functionalism/ "Functionalism"], The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)</ref>

== Philosophy of language ==
===Semantic externalism===
One of Putnam's contributions to [[philosophy of language]] is his claim that "meaning just ain't in the head". He illustrated this using his "Twin Earth" thought experiment to argue that environmental factors play a substantial role in determining meaning. Twin Earth shows this, according to Putnam, since on Twin Earth everything is identical to Earth, except that its lakes, rivers and oceans are filled with XYZ whereas those of earth are filled with H2O. Consequently, when an earthling, Fredrick, uses the Earth-English word "water", it has a different meaning from the Twin Earth-English word "water" when used by his physically identical twin, Frodrick, on Twin Earth. Since Fredrick and Frodrick are physically indistinguishable when they utter their respective words, and since their words have different meanings, meaning cannot be determined solely by what is in their heads. This led Putnam to adopt a version of [[semantic externalism]] with regard to meaning and mental content.<ref name="BIV"/><ref name="MLR"
/>
The late philosopher of mind and language [[Donald Davidson (philosopher)|Donald Davidson]], despite his many differences of opinion with Putnam, wrote that semantic externalism constituted an "anti-subjectivist revolution" in philosophers' way of seeing the world. Since the time of Descartes, philosophers had been concerned with proving knowledge from the basis of subjective experience. Thanks to Putnam, [[Tyler Burge]] and others, philosophy could now take the objective realm for granted and start questioning the alleged "truths" of subjective experience.<ref>Davidson, D. (2001) ''Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 88-7078-832-6</ref>

===Theory of meaning===
Putnam, along with [[Saul Kripke]], [[Keith Donnellan]] and others, contributed to what is known as the [[causal theory of reference]].<ref name="CR" /> In particular, Putnam maintained in ''The Meaning of "Meaning"'' that the objects referred to by [[natural kind]] terms—such as tiger, water, and tree—are the principal elements of the meaning of such terms. There is a linguistic division of labor, analogous to [[Adam Smith]]'s economic division of labor, according to which such terms have their references fixed by the "experts" in the particular field of science to which the terms belong. So, for example, the reference of the term "lion" is fixed by the community of zoologists, the reference of the term "elm tree" is fixed by the community of botanists, and the reference of the term "table salt" is fixed as "NaCl" by chemists. These referents are considered [[rigid designator]]s in the Kripkean sense and are disseminated outward to the linguistic community.<ref name="MLR" />

Putnam specifies a finite sequence of elements (a vector) for the description of the meaning of every term in the language. Such a vector consists of four components:
# the object to which the term [[reference|refers]], e.g., the object individuated by the chemical formula H<sub>2</sub>O;
# a set of typical descriptions of the term, referred to as "the stereotype", e.g., "transparent", "colorless" and "hydrating";
# the semantic indicators that place the object into a general category, e.g., "natural kind" and "liquid"; and
# the syntactic indicators, e.g., "concrete noun" and "mass noun".

Such a "meaning-vector" provides a description of the reference and use of an expression within a particular linguistic community. It provides the conditions for its correct usage and makes it possible to judge whether a single speaker attributes the appropriate meaning to that expression, or whether its use has changed enough to cause a difference in its meaning. According to Putnam, it is legitimate to speak of a change in the meaning of an expression only if the reference of the term, and not its stereotype, has changed. However, since there is no possible algorithm that can determine which aspect—the stereotype or the reference—has changed in a particular case, it is necessary to consider the usage of other expressions of the language.<ref name="MLR" /> Since there is no limit to the number of such expressions which must be considered, Putnam embraced a form of [[semantic holism]].<ref> Dell'Utri, Massimo. (2002) ''Olismo''. Quodlibet. Macerata. ISBN 88-86570-85-6</ref>

==Philosophy of mathematics==
Putnam made a significant contribution to [[philosophy of mathematics]] in the Quine–Putnam "indispensability argument" for [[mathematical realism]].<ref name="Hill" /> This argument is considered by [[Stephen Yablo]] to be one of the most challenging arguments in favor of the acceptance of the existence of abstract mathematical entities, such as numbers and sets.<ref name="Ya">{{cite web|author=Yablo, S. | title=A Paradox of Existence| url=http://www.mit.edu/%7Eyablo/apex.html#fn1|date=November 8, 1998}}</ref> The form of the argument is as follows.

# One must have [[Ontology|ontological]] commitments to ''all'' entities that are indispensable to the best scientific theories, and to those entities ''only'' (commonly referred to as "all and only").
# Mathematical entities are indispensable to the best scientific theories. Therefore, 
# One must have ontological commitments to mathematical entities.<ref name="MMM"> Putnam, H. ''Mathematics, Matter and Method. Philosophical Papers, vol. 1''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. 2nd. ed., 1985.</ref>

The justification for the first premise is the most controversial. Both Putnam and Quine invoke [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]] to justify the exclusion of all non-scientific entities, and hence to defend the "only" part of "all and only". The assertion that "all" entities postulated in scientific theories, including numbers, should be accepted as real is justified by [[confirmation holism]]. Since theories are not confirmed in a piecemeal fashion, but as a whole, there is no justification for excluding any of the entities referred to in well-confirmed theories. This puts the [[nominalism|nominalist]] who wishes to exclude the existence of [[Set (mathematics)|sets]] and [[non-Euclidean geometry]], but to include the existence of [[quark]]s and other undetectable entities of physics, for example, in a difficult position.<ref name="MMM" />

Putnam holds the view that mathematics, like physics and other empirical sciences, uses both strict logical proofs and "[[quasi-empirical]]" methods. For example, [[Fermat's last theorem]] states that for no [[integer]] <math>n>2</math> are there positive integer values of ''x'', ''y'', and ''z'' such that <math>x^n+y^n=z^n</math>. Before this was proven for all <math>n>2</math> in 1995 by [[Andrew Wiles]],<ref>{{cite web|author= J J O'Connor and E F Robertson|title=Andrew Wiles summary|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Wiles.html| month=April | year=1997}}</ref> it had been proven for many values of ''n''. These proofs inspired further research in the area, and formed a quasi-empirical consensus for the theorem. Even though such knowledge is more conjectural than a strictly proven theorem, it was still used in developing other mathematical ideas.<ref name="PutBen"/>

==Mathematics and computer science==
Putnam has contributed to scientific fields not directly related to his work in philosophy.<ref name="CR" /> As a mathematician, Putnam contributed to the resolution of [[Hilbert's tenth problem]] in mathematics. [[Yuri Matiyasevich]] had formulated a [[theorem]] involving the use of [[Fibonacci numbers]] in 1970, which was designed to answer the question of whether there is a general [[algorithm]] that can decide whether a given system of [[Diophantine equation]]s ([[polynomials]] with [[integer]] coefficients) has a solution among the integers. Putnam, working with [[Martin Davis]] and [[Julia Robinson]], demonstrated that Matiyasevich's theorem was sufficient to prove that no such general algorithm can exist. It was therefore shown that [[David Hilbert]]'s famous tenth problem has no solution.<ref name="Mat" />

In [[computer science]], Putnam is known for the [[Davis-Putnam algorithm]] for the [[Boolean satisfiability problem]] (SAT), developed with [[Martin Davis]] in 1960.<ref name="CR" /> The [[algorithm]] finds if there is a set of true or false values that satisfies a given [[Boolean expression]] so that the entire expression becomes true. In 1962, they further refined the algorithm with the help of [[George Logemann]] and [[Donald W. Loveland]]. It became known as the [[DPLL algorithm]]. This algorithm is efficient and still forms the basis of most complete SAT solvers.<ref name="DandP" />

==Epistemology==
[[Image:Brainvat.gif|thumb|right|A "[[brain in a vat]]"—Putnam uses this [[thought experiment]] to argue that skeptical scenarios are impossible.]]

In the field of [[epistemology]], Putnam is known for his "brain in a vat" [[thought experiment]] (a modernized version of [[Descartes]]' [[evil demon]] hypothesis). The argument is that one cannot coherently state that one is a disembodied "brain in a vat" placed there by some "[[mad scientist]]".<ref name="BIV" />  

This follows from the causal theory of reference. Words always refer to the kinds of things they were coined to refer to, thus the kinds of things their user, or her ancestors, experienced. So, if some person, Mary, were a "brain in a vat", whose every experience is received through wiring and other gadgetry created by the "mad scientist", then Mary's idea of a "brain" would not refer to a "real" brain, since she and her linguistic community have never seen such a thing. Rather, she saw something that looked like a brain, but was actually an image fed to her through the wiring. Similarly, her idea of a "vat" would not refer to a "real" vat. So, if, as a "brain in a vat", she were to say "I'm a brain in a vat", she would actually be saying "I'm a brain-image in a vat-image", which is incoherent. On the other hand, if she is not a "brain in a vat", then saying that she is still incoherent, but now because she actually means the opposite. This is a form of [[epistemology|epistemological]] [[externalism]]: knowledge or justification depends on factors outside the mind and is not solely determined internally.<ref name=BIV />

Putnam has clarified that his real target in this argument was never skepticism, but metaphysical realism.<ref name="Wright">Wright, C. (1992), “On Putnam's Proof That We Are Not Brains-in-a-Vat”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 92.</ref> Since realism of this kind assumes the existence of a gap between how man conceives the world and the way the world really is, skeptical scenarios such as this one (or [[René Descartes|Descartes']] [[Evil demon]]) present a formidable challenge. Putnam, by arguing that such a scenario is impossible, attempts to show that this notion of a gap between man's concept of the world and the way it is in itself is absurd. Man cannot have a "God's eye" view of reality. He is limited to his conceptual schemes. Metaphysical realism is therefore false, according to Putnam.<ref>Dell'Utri, M. (1990), “Choosing Conceptions of Realism: the Case of the Brains in a Vat”, Mind 99.</ref>

==Metaphilosophy and ontology==
In the late 1970s and the 1980s, stimulated by results from mathematical logic and by some ideas of Quine, Putnam abandoned his long-standing defence of [[metaphysical realism]]—the view that the categories and structures of the external world are both causally and ontologically independent of the conceptualizations of the human mind. He adopted a rather different view, which he called "internal realism".<ref name="Human" /><ref>Putnam, H. ''The Many Faces of Realism''. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1987.</ref>

Internal realism is the view that, although the world may be ''causally'' independent of the human mind, the structure of the world—its division into kinds, individuals and categories—is a function of the human mind, and hence the world is not ''ontologically'' independent. The general idea is influenced by [[Immanuel Kant|Kant's]] idea of the dependence of our knowledge of the world on the "categories of thought".<ref name="Brown">{{cite journal| author=Curtis Brown |title=Internal Realism: Transcendental Idealism?|journal=Midwest Studies in Philosophy|issue=12|year=1988|pages=145–55.}}</ref>

The problem with metaphysical realism, according to Putnam, is that it fails to explain the possibility of reference and truth. According to the metaphysical realist, our concepts and categories refer because they match up in some mysterious manner with the pre-structured categories, kinds and individuals that are inherent in the external world. But how is it possible that the world "carves up" into certain structures and categories, the mind carves up the world into its own categories and structures, and the two "carvings" perfectly coincide? The answer must be that the world does not come pre-structured but that structure must be imposed on it by the human mind and its conceptual schemes.<ref name="Human" />

[[Nelson Goodman]] had formulated a similar notion in ''Fact, Fiction and Forecast'' in 1956. In that work, Goodman went as far as to suggest that there is "no one world, but many worlds, each created by the human mind."<ref>Goodman, N. ''Fact, Fiction, and Forecast''. University of London: Athlone Press, 1954. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1955. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965. 3rd. ed. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973. 4th ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1983 </ref> Putnam rejected this form of [[social constructivism]], but retained the idea that there can be many correct descriptions of reality. No one of these descriptions can be scientifically proven to be the "one, true" description of the world. This does not imply [[relativism]], for Putnam, because not ''all'' descriptions are equally correct and the ones that are correct are not determined subjectively.<ref name="Half">{{cite journal|author=Putnam, H.| title=A Half Century of Philosophy:Viewed from Within|journal=Daedalus|year=1997|issue=12}} [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3671/is_199701/ai_n8744079 ((online))]</ref>

Under the influence of [[Charles Sanders Peirce|C.S. Peirce]] and [[William James]], Putnam also became convinced that there is no fact–value dichotomy; that is, ethical and aesthetic judgments often have a factual basis, while scientific judgments have an ethical element.<ref name="Half" />

==Neopragmatism and Wittgenstein==
At the end of the 1980s, Putnam became increasingly disillusioned with what he perceived as the "[[scientism]]" and rejection of history that characterize modern [[analytic philosophy]]. He rejected internal realism because it assumed a "cognitive interface" model of the relation between the mind and the world. Under the increasing influence of James and the [[pragmatism|pragmatists]], he adopted a [[direct realism|direct realist]] view of this relation. Under the influence of [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], he adopted a pluralist view of philosophy itself and came to view most philosophical problems as nothing more than conceptual or linguistic confusions created by philosophers by using ordinary language out of its original context.<ref name="Half" />

Putnam's most recent works have focused on bringing philosophy out of its self-imposed shell and back to the world of ordinary people and ordinary social problems.<ref>Reed, Edward (1997). [http://www.piaget.org/GE/1997/GE-25-3.html#2 "Defending Experience: A Philosophy For The Post-Modern World"] in ''The Genetic Epistemologist: The Journal of the Jean Piaget Society'', Volume 25, Number 3.</ref> For example, he has written about the nature of [[democracy]], [[social justice]] and [[religion]]. He has discussed the ideas of the [[continental philosophy|continental philosopher]], [[Jürgen Habermas]], and has written articles influenced by "continental" ideas.<ref name="Hick" />

==Criticism==
Putnam himself may be his own most formidable philosophical adversary.<ref name="CH" /> His frequent changes of mind have led him to attack his previous positions. However, many significant criticisms of his views have come from other philosophers and scientists. For example, multiple realizability has been criticized on the grounds that, if it were true, research and experimentation in the neurosciences would be impossible.<ref name="BandM">Bechtel, William and Mundale, Jennifer. ''Multiple Realizability Revisited'' in ''Philosophy of Science'' 66: 175–207.</ref> According to Bechtel and Mundale, to be able to conduct such research in the neurosciences, universal consistencies must either exist or be assumed to exist in brain structures. It is the similarity (or [[homology (biology)|homology]]) of brain structures that allows us to generalize across species.<ref name="BandM" /> If multiple realizability were an empirical fact, results from experiments conducted on one species of animal (or one organism) would not be meaningful when generalized to explain the behavior of another species (or organism of the same species).<ref>Kim, Sungsu. ''Testing Multiple Realizability: A Discussion of Bechtel and Mundale'' in ''Philosophy of Science''. 69: 606–610.</ref> Other criticisms of MR have been proposed by [[Jaegwon Kim]], [[David Kellogg Lewis|David Lewis]], [[Robert Richardson (philosopher)|Robert Richardson]] and [[Patricia Churchland]].<ref>Kim, Jaegwon. ''Multiple Realizability and the Metaphysics of Reduction'' on ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research''. 52: 1–26.</ref><ref>Lewis, David (1969). “Review of Art, Mind, and Religion.” Journal of Philosophy, 66: 23–35.</ref><ref>Richardson, Robert (1979). “Functionalism and Reductionism.” Philosophy of Science, 46: 533–558.</ref><ref>Churchland, Patricia (1986). Neurophilosophy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.</ref>

One of the main arguments against functionalism was formulated by Putnam himself: the [[Twin Earth thought experiment]]. However, there have been other criticisms. The [[Chinese room]] argument by [[John Searle]] (1980) is a direct attack on the claim that thought can be represented as a set of functions. The thought experiment is designed to show that it is possible to mimic intelligent action, without any interpretation or understanding, through the use of a purely functional system. In short, Searle describes a situation in which a person who speaks only English is locked in a room with Chinese symbols in baskets and a rule book in English for moving the symbols around. The person is instructed, by people outside the room, to follow the rule book for sending certain symbols out of the room when given certain symbols. Further, suppose that the people outside the room are Chinese speakers and are communicating with the person inside via the Chinese symbols. According to Searle, it would be absurd to claim that the English speaker inside "knows" Chinese based on these syntactic processes alone. This thought experiment attempts to show that systems that operate merely on syntactic processes cannot realize any [[semantics]] (meaning) or [[intentionality]] (aboutness). Thus, Searle attacks the idea that thought can be equated with the following of a set of syntactic rules. Thus, functionalism is an inadequate theory of the mind.<ref>Searle, John. (1980). "Minds, Brains and Programs", ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences'', vol.3. ([http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/OldArchive/bbs.searle2.html online])</ref> Several other arguments against functionalism have been advanced by [[Ned Block]].<ref>Block, Ned. (1980b). "Troubles With Functionalism", in Block (1980a).</ref>

Putnam has consistently adhered to the idea of [[semantic holism]], in spite of the many changes in his other positions. The problems with this position have been described by [[Michael Dummett]], [[Jerry Fodor]], [[Ernest Lepore]], and others. In the first place, they suggest that, if semantic holism is true, it is impossible to understand how a speaker of a language can learn the meaning of an expression, for any expression of the language. Given the limits of our cognitive abilities, we will never be able to master the whole of the English (or any other) language, even based on the (false) assumption that languages are static and immutable entities. Thus, if one must understand all of a natural language to understand a single word or expression, language learning is simply impossible. Semantic holism also fails to explain how two speakers can mean the same thing when using the same linguistic expression, and therefore how any communication at all is possible between them. Given a sentence ''P'', since Fred and Mary have each mastered different parts of the English language and ''P'' is related differently to the sentences in each part, the result is that ''P'' means one thing for Fred and something else for Mary. Moreover, if a sentence ''P'' derives its meaning from its relations with all of the sentences of a language, as soon as the vocabulary of an individual changes by the addition or elimination of a sentence, the totality of relations changes, and therefore also the meaning of ''P''. As this is a common phenomenon, the result is that ''P'' has two different meanings in two different moments in the life of the same person. Consequently, if I accept the truth of a sentence and then reject it later on, the meaning of that which I rejected and that which I accepted are completely different and therefore I cannot change my opinions with regard to the same sentences.<ref>Fodor, J. and Lepore, E. ''Holism: A Shopper's Guide''. Blackwell. Oxford. 1992.</ref><ref>Dummett, Michael. ''The Logical Basis of Metaphysics''. Harvard University Press. Cambridge (MA). 1978.</ref><ref>Penco, Carlo. ''Olismo e Molecularismo'' in ''Olismo'' ed. Massimo Dell'Utri. Quodlibet. Macerata. 2002.</ref>

The [[brain in a vat]] argument has also been subject to criticism.<ref name="Stein">Steinitz, Y. (1994), “Brains in a Vat: Different Perspectives”, Philosophical Quarterly 44.</ref> [[Crispin Wright]] argues that Putnam's formulation of the brain-in-a-vat scenario is too narrow to refute global skepticism. The possibility that one is a recently disembodied brain in a vat is not undermined by semantic externalism. If a person has lived her entire life outside the vat—speaking the English language and interacting normally with the outside world—prior to her "envatment" by a mad scientist, when she wakes up inside the vat, her words and thoughts (e.g., "tree" and "grass") will still refer to the objects or events in the external world that they referred to before her envatment.<ref name="Wright"/> In another scenario, a brain in a vat may be hooked up to a [[supercomputer]] that randomly generates perceptual experiences. In this case, one's words and thoughts would not refer to anything, and would therefore be devoid of content. Semantics would no longer exist and the argument would be meaningless.<ref>Brueckner, A. (1986), “Brains in a Vat”, Journal of Philosophy 83.</ref>

In philosophy of mathematics, [[Stephen Yablo]] has argued that the Quine–Putnam indispensability thesis does not demonstrate that mathematical entities are truly indispensable. The argumentation is sophisticated, but the upshot is that one can achieve the same logical results by simply replacing all occurrences of the expression "so-and-so exists" (e.g., numbers exist) by occurrences of the expression "so-and-so is assumed (or hypothesized) to exist". For example, one can take the argument for indispensability described above and replace all references to existent entities with references to entities assumed to exist as follows.
: 1*. One must have ontological commitments to all and only the entities ''that are assumed to exist'' and are indispensable to the best scientific theories.
: 2*. Mathematical entities ''that are assumed to exist'' are indispensable to the best scientific theories. Therefore,
: 3*. One must have ontological commitments to mathematical entities ''that are assumed to exist''.<ref name="Ya" />

Finally, Putnam's internal realism has been accused by Curtis Brown of being a disguised form of subjective [[idealism]]. If this is the case, it is subject to the traditional arguments against that position. In particular, it falls into the trap of [[solipsism]]. That is, if existence depends on experience, as subjective idealism maintains, and if one's consciousness were to stop existing, then the rest of the universe would stop existing as well.<ref name="Brown" />

==Major works==
*''Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings''. Edited with Paul Benacerraf. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964. 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-521-29648-X
*''Philosophy of Logic''. New York: Harper and Row, 1971. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1972. ISBN 0-04-160009-6
*''Mathematics, Matter and Method. Philosophical Papers, vol. 1''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. 2nd. ed., 1985 paperback: ISBN 0-521-29550-5
*''Mind, Language and Reality. Philosophical Papers, vol. 2''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. 2003 paperback: ISBN 0-521-29551-3
*''Meaning and the Moral Sciences''. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.
*''Reason, Truth, and History''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. 2004 paperback: ISBN 0-521-29776-1
*''Realism and Reason. Philosophical Papers, vol. 3.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. 2002 paperback: ISBN 0-521-31394-5
*''Methodology, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science: Essays in Honour of Wolfgang Stegmüller''. edited with Wilhelm K. Essler and Carl G. Hempel. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1983.
*''Epistemology, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science: Essays in Honour of Carl G. Hempel''. edited with Wilhelm K. Essler and Wolfgang Stegmüller. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1985.
*''The Many Faces of Realism''. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1987. ISBN 0-81269043-5
*''Representation and Reality''. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988. ISBN 0-262-66074-1
*''Realism with a Human Face''. edited by [[James F. Conant]]. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-674-74945-6
*''Renewing Philosophy''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-674-76094-8
*''Pursuits of Reason: Essays in Honor of Stanley Cavell''. edited with Ted Cohen and Paul Guyer. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-89672266-X
*''Words and Life''. edited by James F. Conant. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-674-95607-9
*''Pragmatism: An Open Question''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995. ISBN 0-63119343-X
*''The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-231-10287-9
*''Enlightenment and Pragmatism''. Assen: Koninklijke Van Gorcum, 2001. 48pp.
*''The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/PUTCOL.html Description.] ISBN 0-674-01380-8 
*''Ethics Without Ontology''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-674-01851-6 
*''Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life: Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas, Wittgenstein''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.

== Works about Putnam ==
* Y. Ben-Menahem (ed.), ''Hilary Putnam'', Contemporary Philosophy in Focus, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005.
* P. Clark-B. Hale (eds.), ''Reading Putnam'', Blackwell, Cambridge (Massachusetts)-Oxford 1995.
* C.S. Hill (ed.), ''The Philosophy of Hilary Putnam'', Fayetteville, Arkansas 1992.
* M. Rüdel, ''Erkenntnistheorie und Pragmatik: Untersuchungen zu Richard Rorty und Hilary Putnam'', (Dissertation) Hamburg 1987.
* Maximilian de Gaynesford ''Hilary Putnam'' McGill-Queens University Press / Acumen, 2006.

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
<div class="references-small">
*Bechtel, William and Mundale, Jennifer. "Multiple Realizability Revisited" in ''Philosophy of Science'' 66: 175–207.
*Bickle, John., "Multiple Realizability" in ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Fall 2006 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/multiple-realizability/ (online)].
*Brown, C., "Internal Realism: Transcendental Idealism?" ''Midwest Studies in Philosophy'' 12 (1988): 145–155.
*Casati R., "Hillary Putnam" in ''Enciclopedia Garzanti della Filosofia''. [[Gianni Vattimo]] (ed). Milan: Garzanti Editori, 2004. ISBN 88-11-50515-1.
*Churchland, Patricia. ''Neurophilosophy''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.
*Clark, P. & Hale, B. (eds.) ''Reading Putnam''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.
*Dummett, Michael. ''The Logical Basis of Metaphysics''. Harvard University Press. Cambridge (MA) 1972.
*Fodor, J. and Lepore, E. ''Holism: A Shopper's Guide''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
*Foley, M., ''Confronting the War Machine''. North Carolina: North Carolina Press. 1983. ISBN 0-8078-2767-3.
*Gaynesford, M. de ''Hilary Putnam'', Acumen, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maximilian_de_Gaynesford
*Hickey, L.P., "Hilary Putnam" To appear in the "American Philosophers" edition of ''Literary Biography'', ed. Bruccoli, Layman and Clarke.
*Hill, C.S. (ed.) ''The Philosophy of Hilary Putnam'', Fayetteville, Arkansas. 1992.
*Kim, Jaegwon. "Multiple Realizability and the Metaphysics of Reduction." ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'' 52: 1–26.
*[[Peter J. King|King, Peter J]]. ''One Hundred Philosophers: The Life and Work of the World's Greatest Thinkers''. Barron's 2004, p.&nbsp;170.
*Lewis, David. "Review of Art, Mind, and Religion." ''Journal of Philosophy'' 66 (1969): 23–35.
*Matiyesavic, Yuri. ''Hilbert's Tenth Problem''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993. ISBN 0-262-13295-8.
*Penco, Carlo. ''Olismo e Molecularismo'' in ''Olismo'', ed. Massimo Dell'Utri. Quodlibet. Macerata. 2002.
*Putnam, Hilary. ''Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings''. Edited with Paul Benacerraf. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, (1964). 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
*———. ''Mind, Language and Reality. Philosophical Papers, vol. 2''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (1975).
*———. [http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/ph29a/putnam.html "Brains in a Vat"] in ''Reason, Truth, and History'', Cambridge University Press (1981); reprinted in DeRose and Warfield, editors (1999): ''Skepticism: A Contemporary Reader'', Oxford University Press.
*———. ''Realism with a Human Face''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990.
*———. ''The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
*Richardson, Robert. "Functionalism and Reductionism." ''Philosophy of Science'' 46 (1979): 533–558.
*Searle, John. "[http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/OldArchive/bbs.searle2.html Minds, Brains and Programs]." ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences'' 3 (1980).
*Wertheimer, Linda. "[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2006/07/30/finding_my_religion/?page=3 "Finding My Religion]." ''Boston Globe'', July 30, 2006.
*Yablo, S. [http://www.mit.edu/%7Eyablo/apex.html#fn1 "A Paradox of Existence"], June 8, 1998.
</div>

== External links ==
*[http://www.pragmatism.org/putnam/ An extensive bibliography.]
*[http://putnam.135.it/ An extensive directory.]
*[http://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/09/004-wrestling-with-an-angel-34 Review of Putnam's book on Jewish philosophy]
*[http://internalism.googlegroups.com/web/Putnam%20-%20The%20meaning%20of%20%27meaning%27.pdf?gda=twdJY1oAAABFSTngQf24Sy1RD7yNn1iVgy3Odg0ZctAT1N_Bh2qhdGG1qiJ7UbTIup-M2XPURDQe1sJTwbuelxnpaL6JzH4yeFMfiRQRvg6UTOJgQe0faGtRc9Sp7hcxNJ_gjwZr8bQ Putnam, "The meaning of 'meaning'"], in  ''Mind, Language and Reality. Philosophical Papers, vol. 2''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (1975)
* [http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hrp/issues/1992/Putnam.pdf Hilary Putnam: On Mind, Meaning and Reality], Interview by Josh Harlan, ''The Harvard Review of Philosophy'', spring 1992.
* [http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~kerrlaws/Santayana/Bulletin/s1_96.htm Putnam, Hilary and Ruth Anna, "The Quarrel Between Poetry and Philosophy"], read to the Santayana Society at its annual meeting in New York on December 28, 1995.
* [http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hrp/issues/2000/Putnam.pdf "To Think with Integrity"], Hilary Putnam's Farewell Lecture, ''The Harvard Review of Philosophy'', Spring 2000.
* [http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2000/07/20000712_a_main.asp The God Problem], recording of a discussion with [[Alvin Plantinga]] on ''The Connection'' radio show. July 12, 2000.
* [http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.asp?showID=6840 Putnam, "The Depths and Shallows of Experience"], video lecture, [[UCSB]], September 1, 2003. Comments by [[Hubert Schwyzer]] and [[Bruno Latour]].
* [http://www.ucd.ie/news/mar07/030507_Putnam_Award.htm Putnam, "The Fact/Value Dichotomy and its critics"; Roundtable on Externalism] audio/video lecture, audio discussion, March 2007, [[University College Dublin]].
* [http://internalism.blip.tv/file/420305/ Hilary Putnam - Externalism: Its Motivation And Its Critics], video of a lecture, delivered at Harvard University on October 4 2007
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlrEbffVVjM A short film about the Putnam-Rorty debate and its influence on the pragmatist revival]
*{{PDFlink| [http://gehirnimtank.de Philosopher Olaf L. Müller's elaboration of the Brain in a Vat argument.]}} {{de icon}}

{{metaphysics}}

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