Description
Book SynopsisIn this festschrift for the eminent philosopher Hilary Putnam, a team of distinguished philosophers write on a broad range of topics and thus reflect the remarkably fertile and provocative research of Putnam himself. The volume is not merely a celebration of a man, but also a report on the state of philosophy in a number of significant areas. The essays fall naturally into three groups: a central core on the theme of conventionality and content in the philosophy of mind, language, and science, and two smaller sections on the relationship of ethics and language, and on the philosophy of logic and aesthetics.
Table of ContentsPreface; List of contributors; 1. The source of the concept of truth Michael Dummet; 2. Facts that don't matter Catherine Z. Elgin; 3. Has the description theory of names been refuted? Jerrold J. Katz; 4. Substitution arguments and the individuation of beliefs J. A. Fodor; 5. Meanings just ain't in the head Michael Devitt; 6. Semantic anorexia: on the notion of 'content' in cognitive science Louise Antony; 7. Can the mind change the world? Ned Block; 8. Realism, conventionality and 'realism about' Richard Boyd; 9. Invidious contrasts within theories Lawrence Sklar; 10. Mathematics and modality Hartry Field; 11. Ontological commitment: thick and thin Harold Hodes; 12. The standard of equality of numbers George Boolos; 13. Doing what one ought to do Ruth Anna Putnam; 14. Closing up the corpses: diseases of sexuality and the emergence of the psychiatric style of reasoning Arnold I. Davidson; 15. Perception and revolution: The Princess Casamassima and the political imagination Martha Nussbaum; 16. Human rights, population aging and intergenerational equity Norman Daniels.
