Philosophical Papers: Volume 2, Mind, Language and Reality

Professor Hilary Putnam's most important published work is collected here in two volumes.

Hilary Putnam (Edited by)

9780521295512, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 April 1979

476 pages
22.6 x 15.1 x 2.3 cm, 0.606 kg

'Professor Putnam presents a powerful, coherent and persuasive system of thought. Ranging widely over the topics mentioned in their titles, the two volumes of essays yet have a remarkable degree of unity. Their themes overlap and are linked, as philosophical themes, seriously handled, must always overlap and be linked. In a period in which the general level of philosophical competence, as evidenced in publication, is extremely high, Putnam's work stands conspicuously out by virtue of its combination of technical sophistication, clear-sightedness, depth and power. Nothing of what he says is trivial, most of it is true and all parts of it are systematically interconnected. His prose - lucid, lively and unpretentious - is an excellent medium for his thought.' P. F. Strawson, The Times Literary Supplement

Professor Hilary Putnam has been one of the most influential and sharply original of recent American philosophers in a whole range of fields. His most important published work is collected here, together with several new and substantial studies, in two volumes. The first deals with the philosophy of mathematics and of science and the nature of philosophical and scientific enquiry; the second deals with the philosophy of language and mind. Volume one is now issued in a new edition, including an essay on the philosophy of logic first published in 1971.

Introduction
1. Language and philosophy
2. The analytic and synthetic
3. Do true assertions correspond to reality?
4. Some issues in the theory of grammar
5. The 'innateness hypothesis' and explanatory models in linguistics
6. How not to talk about meaning
7. Review of The concept of a person
8. Is semantics possible?
9. The refutation of conventionalism
10. Reply to Gerald Massey
11. Explanation and reference
12. The meaning of 'meaning'
13. Language and reality
14. Philosophy and our mental life
15. Dreaming and 'depth grammar'
16. Brains and behaviour
17. Other minds
18. Minds and machines
19. Robots: machines or artificially created life?
20. The mental life of some machines
21. The nature of mental states
22. Logical positivism and the philosophy of mind
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS], Philosophy of language [CFA]