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Short Biography
Hilary Whitehall Putnam was born in Chicago, IL on July 31st, 1926 and later died from lung cancer in Arlington, MA on March 13th, 2016. He was an only child to Samuel and Riva Putnam. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and went on to graduate from Harvard University in philosophy. He is mostly known for his defensive stance on realism (Ben-Menahem, 2019). -
Realism
Hilary Putnam was widely known for his overall stance on realism. Throughout his years, Putnam continually changed his view on realism, but the most important change occurred in 1976. During this time he wanted to take metaphysical realism and adopt internal realism instead. He saw metaphysical realism to be blind from the autonomy and complexity of the human language (Ben-Menahem, 2019). -
Internal Realism
He never changed his opinion on denial of objective truth, only expanded on his thought (Ben-Menahem, 2019). Internal realism is based on knowing the truth for what it truly is and having correct word correlation to represent it. It is also to be known as pragmatic realism, or pragmatism. It focuses on the truths of theories or beliefs based on how well their application is successful. -
Internal Realism Video
https://youtu.be/P4QtOT57S9Y
This is a video that a professor, William James, discusses internal realism, or pragmatism, in a conference setting. -
Work CIted
Ben-Menahem, Yemima. “Hilary Putnam.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 9 Mar. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Hilary-Putnam.