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Birth: July 31, 1926 Source: Weber, Bruce. “Hilary Putnam, Giant of Modern Philosophy, Dies at 89.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Mar. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/arts/hilary-putnam-giant-of-modern-philosophy-dies-at-89.html. -
Studying under Hans Reichenbach, Putnam wrote a dissertation on the idea of probability. He promptly earned his Ph.D
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During the time after he achieved his Ph.D, he taught Philosophy at a number of colleges, including Northwestern University, Princeton University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then retired from teaching in the Philosophy department at Harvard in 2000.
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In this paper, Putnam dubbed the term "functionalism" where he connected human mental states to be intertwined with realizations of internal status. This paper contributed widely to the philosophical community, and his idea of functionalism became adopted and widely maintained throughout history. Source: Putnam, Hilary. “The Meaning of ‘Meaning.’” The Meaning of “Meaning,” University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1 Jan. 1975, conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/185225. -
In this publishing, Putnam contradicts and elaborates on some of his earlier works. He was widely known for changing his mind and published multiple books on this topic.
Source: Putnam, Hilary. “Realism with a Human Face.” University of Chicago, humstatic.uchicago.edu/philosophy/conant/Conant%20Realism%20with%20a%20Human%20Face%20Introduction%20Pt%201.pdf. -
This youtube video is a short clip of Hilary Putnam discussing one of his most popular and widespread ideas of functionalism in one of his books. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0bky2ep_lI
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