330px hilary putnam

Hilary Putnam July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016

  • Period: to

    Life of Putnam

    Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1926. Hilary showed a aptitude for philosophy, receiving his B.A at the University of Pennsylvania and later Ph.D. for his dissertation that was used for graduate work in philosophy at Harvard University and the University of Los Angles.
  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Activist

    Hilary Putnam in the early 60's and 70's showed to be a very active supporter of American Civil Right as well as opposed the Vietnam War. In 1963 he started the first student and faculty committees against the war.
  • Multiple Realizability

    Multiple Realizability
    Putnam challenged the brain state theorist by posing the idea of physical chemical kind. This idea is essentially stating that mental property or events can be cause by different physical properties. For example pain.
  • Machine State Functionalism

    Machine State Functionalism
    Inspired by Putnam and others, the point for functionalism was to assist in the nature of the Turing machine. The idea is that the nature of a mental state is similar to the nature of a Turing machine. Such as with one input, something happens in relation to that input, similar to reacting to pain.
  • Putnam's Death

    Putnam Died in his home in Arlington Massachusetts