When1: 1967
When2: 1992
Who: Hilary Putnam [Putnam, Hilary]
What: philosopher
Where: USA
works\ Psychological Predicates [1967]; Mind, Language, and Reality [1975]; Meaning and the Moral Sciences [1978]; Reason, Truth and History [1981]; Philosophy of Mathematics [1983: with Paul Benacerraf]; Realism and Reason [1983]; Many Faces of Realism [1987]; Representation and Reality [1988]; Realism with a Human Face [1990]; Renewing Philosophy [1992]
Detail: He lived 1926 to ?, was first logical positivist, and was Carnap's student. Quine, Wittgenstein, and Nelson Goodman influenced him.
Epistemology
People should not judge beliefs individually, but only as whole system {holism, Putnam}. Senses and facts cannot be the basis of knowledge. Knowledge requires brains that communicate.
Brain {brain in a vat} can know, by electrochemical input alone, everything people know, so it is impossible to prove existence of external world.
People react to natural occurrences to establish conscious linguistic responses {causal theory of reference, Putnam}. Mental states, representing ideas, cause linguistic responses. Linguistic responses report mental state using signs. Response pattern depends on similarity or relation represented by mental state, which people do not necessarily consciously know. Because mental states vary widely, natural occurrence can have incompatible explanations.
Skepticism refutes itself, because its thoughts have different meaning than ordinary thoughts.
Relativity requires that past, present, and future have no real distinction among them.
People think and speak based on how experts use words {externalism, Putnam}.
Mind
Mental states are computations {functionalism, Putnam}, and mind is relations between beliefs, desires, memories, and all mental states. This was his early thinking, which he criticized later. Minds know objects using mental tools {internal realism}.
Social Sciences>Philosophy>History>Mind
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Date Modified: 2022.0224