Reason, Truth and History

Hilary Putnam deals in this book with some of the most fundamental persistent problems in philosophy.

Hilary Putnam (Author)

9780521297769, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 31 December 1981

236 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.31 kg

'It is refreshingly wide-ranging and ambitious, covering the philosophies of logic, language and knowledge, philosophy of mind, philosophy of history, and ethics. It manages to derive fresh insights even from such familiar topics as Wittgenstein's so-called Private Language argument. Without pretentiousness or name-dropping, it combines strands from recent Anglo-American and Continental philosophy. And it is written in a style which is usually lively and witty.' Philosophical Books

Hilary Putnam deals in this book with some of the most fundamental persistent problems in philosophy: the nature of truth, knowledge and rationality. His aim is to break down the fixed categories of thought which have always appeared to define and constrain the permissible solutions to these problems.

Preface
1. Brains in a vat
2. A problem about reference
3. Two philosophical perspectives
4. Mind and body
5. Two conceptions of rationality
6. Fact and value
7. Reason and history
8. The impact of science on modern conceptions of rationality
9. Values, facts and cognition
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge [HPK]