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Hilary Putnam is born in Chicago, IL to Samuel and Riva Putnam.
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Graduated in Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania
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Putnam began working on his PhD at Harvard and finished it at UCLA working with such philosophers and scientist like Willard Van Orman Quine and Hans Reichenbach,
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Putnam's first teachings were in Maths and Philosophy at Northwestern University
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Although he studied under Quine for most of his PhD, he did not agree with some of his work and spoke about it in his paper The Analytic and Synthetic
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Minds and Machines was released and argued both Type-Identity theory and Behaviorism, Type-Identity being an theory that argues that mental states can be categorized and behaviorism which argues that a person or animals behavior can be explained through their own personal experiences or trauma.
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He became a member of the Progressive Labor party which would involve him at times, standing outside factories in the early morning discussing politics with workers.
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In 1976 Putnam was elected president of the American Philosophical Association
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During the 80's, Putnam began to have distaste with functionalism and began to dive into his heritage roots and write about ethics and Jewish Philosophy and finally had his barmitzvah at the age of 68.
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After 35 years of teaching at Harvard University, Putnam retires as emeritus professor.
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In 2011 Putnam was awarded the Rolf Schock prize in logic and philosophy by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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Hilary Putnam's death