Realism with a Human Face

“There are many strengths in these essays. Like all his work, they are highly readable; they are on deep and general issues; they contain forceful critiques, particularly of such diverse figures as Ayer and Rorty; and Putnam’s first-order views in ethics are compassionate and imaginative… Any reader of these vivid and provocative essays will be forced to rethink his views somewhere.”—Christopher Peacocke, The Times Literary Supplement

“In this excellent collection of thematically linked essays, Harvard philosopher Putnam argues that it is time for philosophy to leave its world of system-building and to return to its true place as a form of thought intimately connected with real life… Highly recommended as an antidote to much 20th-century analytic philosophy and the claimed ‘death’ of metaphysics.”—Terry Skeats, Library Journal

“My current favorite living philosopher is Hilary Putnam, as embodied in his book Realism with a Human Face… In a tone that is simultaneously witty and generous, skeptical and self-revealing, and in sentences that are often a pleasure to read… Putnam’s philosophy is a philosophy for our world, a vehicle in which you can comfortably travel right now.”—Wendy Lesser, Threepenny Review