Putnam, Hilary 1926-

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PUTNAM, Hilary 1926-

PERSONAL:

Born July 31, 1926, in Chicago, IL; son of Samuel (a writer and translator) and Riva (Sampson) Putnam; married Erna Diesendruck, November 1, 1948 (divorced, 1962); married Ruth Anna Hall (a professor of philosophy), August 11, 1962; children: (first marriage) Erika, (second marriage) Samuel, Joshua, Polly. Education: University of Pennsylvania, B.A., 1948; University of California—Los Angeles, Ph.D., 1951. Hobbies and other interests: Camping, hiking, cooking, languages.

ADDRESSES:

Home—116 Winchester Rd., Arlington, MA 02174. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, instructor in philosophy, 1952-53; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, assistant professor, 1953-60, associate professor of philosophy, 1960-61; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, professor of philosophy, 1961-65; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, professor of philosophy, 1965-2000, Walter Beverly Pearson Professor of Modern Mathematics and Mathematical Logic, beginning 1976, Cogan University Professor, 1995-2000, professor emeritus, 2000—. Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, visiting research professor, 1957; Oxford University, John Locke Lecturer, 1976; Universita degli Studi di Roma, lecturer, 1992; Hermes Lecturer, 2001.

MEMBER:

American Mathematical Society, American Philosophical Association (vice president of Eastern Division, 1975-76; president, 1976-77), Association for Symbolic Logic (president, 1977-80), Philosophy of Science Association (president, 1977-78), Charles S. Peirce Society (president, 1988-89), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (fellow), British Academy (corresponding fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Rockefeller Foundation research fellow, 1951-52; fellow of National Science Foundation, 1957, 1968-69; Guggenheim Foundation fellow, 1960-61; fellow of National Endowment for the Humanities, 1975-76; also received honorary degrees.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Paul Benacerraf) Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1964, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1983.

Philosophy of Logic, Harper (New York, NY), 1971.

Philosophical Papers, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), Volume 1: Mathematics: Matter and Method, 1975, 2nd edition (includes Philosophy of Logic), 1979, Volume 2: Mind, Language, and Reality, 1975, Volume 3: Realism and Reason, 1983.

Meaning and the Moral Sciences, Routledge & Kegan Paul (Boston, MA), 1978.

Reason, Truth, and History, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1981.

(Editor, with Carl G. Hempel) Methodology, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science: Essays in Honour of Wolfgang Stegmüller on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday, June 3rd, 1983, D. Reidel (Boston, MA), 1983.

(Editor, with Wilhelm K. Essler) Epistemology, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science: Essays in Honor of Carl G. Hempel on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, January 8, 1985, D. Reidel (Boston, MA), 1985.

The Many Faces of Realism, Open Court (La Salle, IL), 1987.

Representation and Reality, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1988.

The Meaning of the Concept of Probability in Application to Finite Sequences, Garland Publishing (New York, NY), 1990.

Realism with a Human Face, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1990.

Renewing Philosophy, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1992.

(Editor, with Ted Cohen and Paul Guyer) Pursuits of Reason: Essays in Honor of Stanley Cavell, Texas Tech University Press (Lubbock, TX), 1993.

Words and Life, edited by James Conant, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

Pragmatism: An Open Question, Blackwell (Cambridge, MA), 1995.

The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

Ethics without Ontology, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

Other books include Fact, Fiction, and Forecast and Reasoning and the Logic of Things, both Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA). Contributor to books, including Dimensions of Mind, edited by Sidney Hook, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1960; Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume III, edited by Herbert Feigl and Grover Maxwell, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1960; and Understanding the Sick and the Healthy: A View of World, Man, and God, edited by Franz Rosenzweig, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1999. Contributor to professional journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hilary Putnam once wrote that he is interested in trying to reunify philosophy of science and moral philosophy.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Boolos, George, editor, Meaning and Method: Essays in Honor of Hilary Putnam, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1990.

Pessin, Andrew, and Sanford Goldberg, editors, The Twin Earth Chronicles: Twenty Years of Reflection on Hilary Putnam's "The Meaning of 'Meaning,'" M. E. Sharpe (Armonk, NY), 1996.

Salmon, Nathan U., Reference and Essence, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1981.

PERIODICALS

Choice, June, 1976, review of Philosophical Papers, Volume 1: Mathematics: Matter and Method, Volume 2: Mind, Language, and Reality, p. 536; January, 1979, review of Meaning and the Moral Sciences, p. 1534; September, 1988, review of The Many Faces of Realism, p. 144; February, 1989, review of Representation and Reality, p. 955; March, 1991, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 1151; May, 1993, review of Renewing Philosophy, p. 1481; October, 1994, review of Words and Life, p. 300; September, 1995, review of Pragmatism: An Open Question, p. 140.

Christian Century, May 8, 1991, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 530.

Contemporary Sociology, July, 1979, review of Meaning and the Moral Sciences, p. 593.

Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, January, 1993, review of Representation and Reality, p. 178.

Esquire, May, 1994, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 138.

Ethics, April, 1981, review of Meaning and the Moral Sciences, p. 511.

International Philosophical Quarterly, December, 1979, review of Meaning and the Moral Sciences, p. 497; June, 1983, review of Reason, Truth, and History, p. 211.

Journal of Philosophy, October, 1982, review of Reason, Truth, and History, pp. 553, 568; May, 1984, review of Reason, Truth, and History, p. 257; March, 1986, review of Reason, Truth, and History, p. 148; September, 1993, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 443; March, 1994, review of Renewing Philosophy, p. 140.

Library Journal, March 1, 1982, review of Reason, Truth, and History, p. 552; June 1, 1988, review of Representation and Reality, p. 114; August, 1990, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 113; November 1, 1992, review of Renewing Philosophy, p. 90; April 15, 1994, review of Words and Life, p. 81; December, 2002, Robert Hoffman, review of The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays, p. 132.

London Review of Books, June 3, 1982, review of Reason, Truth, and History, p. 11; August 2, 1984, review of Philosophical Papers, Volume 3: Realism and Reason, p. 6; May 4, 1989, review of Representation and Reality, p. 15; February 7, 1991, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 12; December 2, 1993, review of Renewing Philosophy, p. 30.

New York Review of Books, April 12, 2001, review of The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World, p. 71.

Partisan Review, April, 1991, review of Representation and Reality, p. 739.

Philosophical Review, October, 1977, review of Philosophical Papers, p. 545; July, 1979, review of Meaning and the Moral Sciences, p. 460; April, 1984, review of Reason, Truth, and History,p. 274; April, 1992, review of Representation and Reality, p. 359; July, 1994, review of Renewing Philosophy, p. 533; October, 1996, review of Pragmatism, p. 560.

Religious Studies Review, January, 1987, review of Philosophical Papers, Volume 3, p. 18.

Review of Metaphysics, September, 1978, review of Meaning and the Moral Sciences, p. 150; September, 1991, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 143; December, 1991, review of Representation and Reality, p. 426; December, 1995, John Haldane, review of Words and Life, p. 426.

Style, spring, 1998, Frank B. Farrell, review of Pragmatism, p. 170.

Times Literary Supplement, July 9, 1976, review of Philosophical Papers, p. 845; July 16, 1982, review of Reason, Truth, and History, p. 774; October 28, 1988, review of Representation and Reality, p. 1210; February 22, 1991, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 21; June 18, 1993, review of Renewing Philosophy, p. 15.

University Press Book News, March, 1991, review of Realism with a Human Face, p. 3.

U.S. News and World Report, April 25, 1988, Alvin P. Sanoff, "Bringing Philosophy Back to Life" (interview), p. 56.

Wilson Quarterly, Volume 13, number 1, 1989, review of Representation and Reality, p. 126.

Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, June, 1983, review of Meaning and the Moral Sciences, p. 199.