Hilary Whitehall Putnam

Hilary Whitehall Putnam (July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions to philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science. Outside philosophy, Putnam contributed to mathematics and computer science. Together with Martin Davis he developed the Davis–Putnam algorithm for the Boolean satisfiability problem and he helped demonstrate the unsolvability of Hilbert's tenth problem.

He was 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 exposed its flaws. As a result, he acquired a reputation for frequently changing his own position. In philosophy of mind, Putnam is known for his argument against the type-identity of mental and physical states based on his hypothesis of the multiple realizability of the mental, and for the concept of functionalism, an influential theory regarding the mind–body problem. In philosophy of language, along with Saul Kripke and others, he developed the causal theory of reference, and formulated an original theory of meaning, introducing the notion of semantic externalism based on a famous thought experiment called Twin Earth.

In philosophy of mathematics, he and his mentor W. V. O. Quine developed the "Quine–Putnam indispensability thesis", an argument for the reality of mathematical entities, later espousing the view that mathematics is not purely logical, but "quasi-empirical". 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 epistemological skepticism, but Putnam challenges its coherence. In metaphysics, he originally espoused a position called metaphysical realism, but eventually became one of its most outspoken critics, first adopting a view he called "internal realism", which he later abandoned. Despite these changes of view, throughout his career he remained committed to scientific realism, roughly the view that mature scientific theories are approximately true descriptions of ways things are.

In the philosophy of perception Putnam came to endorse direct realism, according to which perceptual experiences directly present one with the external world. In the past, he further held that there are no mental representations, sense data, or other intermediaries that stand between the mind and the world. By 2012, however, he rejected this further commitment, in favor of "transactionalism", a view that accepts both that perceptual experiences are world-involving transactions, and that these transactions are functionally describable (provided that worldly items and intentional states may be referred to in the specification of the function). Such transactions can further involve qualia. In his later work, Putnam became increasingly interested in American pragmatism, Jewish philosophy, and ethics, thus engaging with a wider array of philosophical traditions. He also displayed an interest in metaphilosophy, seeking to "renew philosophy" from what he identifies as narrow and inflated concerns. He was at times a politically controversial figure, especially for his involvement with the Progressive Labor Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the time of his death, Putnam was Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University.

• From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Putnam, accessed 31 July 2019.

הילרי וייטהול פטנאם

(באנגלית: Hilary Whitehall Putnam;‏ 31 ביולי 1926 - 13 במרץ 2016) היה פילוסוף יהודי-אמריקאי. תרם תרומות חשובות בתחום הבעיה הפסיכופיזית, פילוסופיה של הלשון, פילוסופיה של המדע ופילוסופיה אנליטית. נודע בביקורתיות האנליטית החריפה בה ניתח שיטות פילוסופיות כדי למצוא בהן פגמים, כולל את שיטתו שלו. כתוצאה מכך, התפרסם בתור מי שמשנה את דעותיו לעיתים קרובות.

תוכן עניינים
1 קורות חיים 2 בבילוגרפיה חלקית 2.1 בעברית 2.2 באנגלית 3 לקריאה נוספת 4 קישורים חיצוניים 5 הערות שוליים קורות חיים פטנאם נולד בשיקגו. אביו, סמואל פטנאם התמחה בשפות רומאניות ותרגם את דון קיחוטה לאנגלית. הוא עבד בעיתון של המפלגה הקומוניסטית האמריקאית ה"דיילי וורקר". אימו ריבה הייתה יהודיה. ילדותו עברה עליו בצרפת וב-1934 שבה משפחתו לארצות הברית וקבעה את מגוריה בפילדלפיה. בתיכון פגש את נועם חומסקי, עמו היה מיודד על אף היריבות האינטלקטואלית, כל חייו.

החל את לימודיו האקדמיים באוניברסיטת פנסילבניה והמשיך באוניברסיטת הרווארד ובאוניברסיטת קליפורניה בלוס אנג'לס, שם היה תלמידם של הנס רייכנבאך (מנחה התיזה שלו) ורודולף קרנפ, שני עמודי התווך של השיטה הפילוסופית השלטת של ימיו, פוזיטיביזם לוגי; למרות זאת, פטנאם גרס שכשיטה, פוזיטיביזם לוגי נועדה לכישלון בשל הסתירות הפנימיות שיש בה.

פטנאם ידוע גם בגלל תרומותיו להבנת הבעיה העשירית של הילברט, לגבי קיום אלגוריתם לפתרון משוואות פולינומיות עם פתרונות שלמים (כיום ידוע שאין אלגוריתם כזה). אלגוריתם שהציע עם מרטין דייוויס לבדיקת נאותות של נוסחאות בשפה מסדר ראשון הוא הבסיס למערכות רבות לבדיקת ספיקות נוסחאות בתחשיב פסוקים.

היה חבר האקדמיה האמריקאית לאמנויות ולמדעים (נבחר ב-1966). בשנת 2003 מונה פטנאם לפרופסור בכיר בבית הספר לפילוסופיה של אוניברסיטת תל אביב.[1]

פטנאם נפטר מסרטן בשנת 2016 בעיר מגוריו, בוסטון.[2]

ספרו "פילוסופיה יהודית כמדריך לחיים" יצא לאור בעברית.[3] בספר זה הוא כותב על משנתם של פרנץ רוזנצווייג, מרטין בובר, עמנואל לוינס, ולודוויג ויטגנשטיין.

נישא לרות אנה ג'ייקובס, פילוסופית אף היא, ולזוג נולדו ארבעה ילדים. אף על פי ששניהם גדלו בבתים חילונים ורק אימותיהם היו יהודיות הם בחרו לקיים אורח חיים יהודי.

בבילוגרפיה חלקית בעברית פילוסופיה יהודית כמדריך לחיים, תרגום מאנגלית: דבי אילון, הוצאת מאגנס, 2002. באנגלית

• "The 'Innateness Hypothesis' and Explanatory Models in Linguistics", Synthese, Vol. 17, No. 1, March 1967, pp. 12–22. Not accessible on Harvard servers anymore. 3/2/2019[4] 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 0-8126-9043-5 Representation and Reality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1988. ISBN 0-262-66074-1 Realism with a Human Face. edited by James F. Conant. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1990. 9780674749450 Description.

ISBN 0-674-74945-6 Renewing Philosophy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1992. 9780674760943 Description.

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 0-89672-266-X Words and Life. edited by James F. Conant. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1994. 9780674956070 Description.

ISBN 0-674-95607-9 Pragmatism: An Open Question. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995. ISBN 0-631-19343-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, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002. Description.

ISBN 0-674-01380-8 Ethics Without Ontology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002. 9780674018518 Description.

ISBN 0-674-01851-6 Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life: Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas, Wittgenstein. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. Philosophy in an Age of Science, edited by Mario De Caro and David Macarthur. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2012. 9780674050136 Description. Naturalism, Realism, and Normativity, edited by Mario De Caro, Cam, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2016, ISBN 9780674659698. לקריאה נוספת יהודה ויזן, "שיחה עם הילרי פטנאם", דחק - כתב עת לספרות טובה, כרך ג', 2013, עמ' 463–468. קישורים חיצוניים ויקישיתוף מדיה וקבצים בנושא הילרי פטנאם בוויקישיתוף הילרי פטנאם , באתר פרויקט הגנאלוגיה במתמטיקה עופר אדרת, ההוגה היהודי-אמריקאי הילרי פטנם, אחד הפילוסופים הגדולים של זמננו, מת בגיל 89 , באתר הארץ, 16 במרץ 2016 https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%A8%D7%99_%D7%A4...

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Hilary Whitehall Putnam (July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions to philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science. Outside philosophy, Putnam contributed to mathematics and computer science. Together with Martin Davis he developed the Davis–Putnam algorithm for the Boolean satisfiability problem and he helped demonstrate the unsolvability of Hilbert's tenth problem.

He was 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 exposed its flaws. As a result, he acquired a reputation for frequently changing his own position. In philosophy of mind, Putnam is known for his argument against the type-identity of mental and physical states based on his hypothesis of the multiple realizability of the mental, and for the concept of functionalism, an influential theory regarding the mind–body problem. In philosophy of language, along with Saul Kripke and others, he developed the causal theory of reference, and formulated an original theory of meaning, introducing the notion of semantic externalism based on a famous thought experiment called Twin Earth.

In philosophy of mathematics, he and his mentor W. V. O. Quine developed the "Quine–Putnam indispensability thesis", an argument for the reality of mathematical entities, later espousing the view that mathematics is not purely logical, but "quasi-empirical". 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 epistemological skepticism, but Putnam challenges its coherence. In metaphysics, he originally espoused a position called metaphysical realism, but eventually became one of its most outspoken critics, first adopting a view he called "internal realism", which he later abandoned. Despite these changes of view, throughout his career he remained committed to scientific realism, roughly the view that mature scientific theories are approximately true descriptions of ways things are.

In the philosophy of perception Putnam came to endorse direct realism, according to which perceptual experiences directly present one with the external world. In the past, he further held that there are no mental representations, sense data, or other intermediaries that stand between the mind and the world. By 2012, however, he rejected this further commitment, in favor of "transactionalism", a view that accepts both that perceptual experiences are world-involving transactions, and that these transactions are functionally describable (provided that worldly items and intentional states may be referred to in the specification of the function). Such transactions can further involve qualia. In his later work, Putnam became increasingly interested in American pragmatism, Jewish philosophy, and ethics, thus engaging with a wider array of philosophical traditions. He also displayed an interest in metaphilosophy, seeking to "renew philosophy" from what he identifies as narrow and inflated concerns. He was at times a politically controversial figure, especially for his involvement with the Progressive Labor Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the time of his death, Putnam was Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University.

• From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Putnam, accessed 31 July 2019.