A Companion to Hilary Putnam
Format:Hardback
Publisher:John Wiley & Sons Inc
Publishing:7th Jan '27
£153.00
This title is due to be published on 7th January, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Twenty-seven chapters appraising Hilary Putnam's full intellectual legacy
Hilary Putnam's contributions span philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, mathematics, quantum mechanics, computer science, and ethics. A Companion to Hilary Putnam comprises twenty-seven chapters that analyse and extend his theories across these domains, tracing his philosophical development from 1951 to 2016. The volume moves beyond summary to cultivate Putnam's ideas into new directions in philosophy and science.
Contributors engage directly with Putnam's paradigm-shifting arguments, including the Brain-in-a-Vat and Twin Earth thought experiments, his work solving Hilbert's Tenth Problem, his philosophical treatment of Quantum mechanics, and his approach to ethics without ontology. Each chapter appraises specific dimensions of his moving-target thinking, offering original analysis rather than retrospective overview alone.
Readers will also find:
- Detailed examination of Putnam's contributions to computer science and his lasting influence on computational theory and artificial intelligence research
- Analysis of Putnam's turn toward analytical philosophy and the evolving trajectory of his positions across six decades of sustained inquiry
- Critical engagement with semantic externalism, internal realism, and the philosophical frameworks that defined Putnam's approach to meaning and reference
- Exploration of Putnam's ethical philosophy, including his arguments for ethics without ontology and their implications for contemporary moral discourse
- Original essays that extend Putnam-inspired thinking into current philosophical debates, serving as both scholarly tribute and forward-looking inquiry
Designed for university libraries and advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in philosophy, linguistics, science, computer science, and mathematics, this companion supports coursework in philosophy of science, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. It provides sustained scholarly engagement with one of the twentieth century's most wide-ranging philosophical minds.
"Hilary Putnam was a philosopher of quite extraordinary versatility, creativity, and power. His philosophical legacy includes ideas of fundamental interest and enduring importance across all of Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mathematics, and Metaphysics. He is also famous for his life-long restless rethinking of his own ideas. Sanjit Chakraborty’s excellently assembled Companion, comprising no less than twenty-seven essays by experts in the various fields to which Putnam contributed, is both a fitting tribute to the achievements of a great philosopher and a hitherto unmatched resource for scholars of the evolution of Putnam’s thought and for all, students and established philosophers alike, who simply wish to engage in their own work with the rich repository of novel concepts and brilliant arguments that he bequeathed us."
—Crispin Wright, Former Global Professor of Philosophy at New York University, Professor at the University of Stirling
"A very impressive list of contributors, covering a wide range of issues Hilary in fact took up. Anyone working on Putnam will want to have this book, but also philosophers not working on Putnam but on one or another of the problems discussed by some of the contributors would also profit."
—Charles Travis, Emeritus Professor, King's College London
"Sanjit, Thank you for all your work on my philosophy! Our correspondence stimulates me, and leads me also to change my mind on some issues (which I am famous for doing, I know)."
—Hilary Putnam
ISBN: 9781394297108
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
512 pages