Words and Life

Hilary Putnam

James Conant

    Introduction by James Conant

    1. The Return of Aristotle

    A. How Old Is the Mind?

    B. Changing Aristotle's Mind(with Martha C. Nussbaum)

    C. Aristotle after Wittgenstein

    2. The Legacy of Logical Positivism

    A. Logical Positivism and Intentionality

    B. Reichenbach's Metaphysical Picture

    C. Reichenbach and the Myth of the Given

    D. Reichenbach and the Limits of Vindication

    3. The Inheritance of Pragmatism

    A. Pragmatism and Moral Objectivity

    B. Pragmatism and Relativism: Universal Values and Traditional Ways of Life

    C. Dewey's Logic: Epistemology as Hypothesis(with Ruth Anna Putnam)

    D. Education for Democracy(with Ruth Anna Putnam)

    4. Essays after Wittgenstein

    A. Rethinking Mathematical Necessity

    B. Does the Disquotational Theory of Truth Solve All Philosophical Problems?

    C. Realism without Absolutes

    D. The Question of Realism

    5. Truth and Reference

    A. On Truth

    B. A Comparison of Something with Something Else

    C. Model Theory and the "Factuality"of Semantics

    D. Probability and the Mental

    6. Mind and Language

    A. Artificial Intelligence: Much Ado about Not Very Much

    B. Models and Modules: Fodor's The Modularity of Mind

    C. Reflexive Reflections

    D. Reductionism and the Nature of Psychology

    E. Why Functionalism Didn't Work

    6. The Diversity of the Sciences

    A. The Diversity of the Sciences

    B. The Idea of Science

    C. Three Kinds of Scientific Realism

    D. Philosophy of Mathematics: Why Nothing Works

    E. The Cultural Impact of Newton: Pope's Essay on Man and Those "Happy Pieties"

    Credits

    Index

  • Cover: Words and Life
  • A photo of the author

Hilary Putnam is Cogan University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University.

James Conant is Chester D. Tripp Professor of Humanities University of Chicago.