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He was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father was an active communist working as a columnist for the Daily Worker, the newspaper of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA)
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He married Erna Diesendruck and they had a daughter, Erika. The marriage ended in a divorce in 1962. Also in 1962, he married Ruth Anna. Ruth and Hilary had a daughter, Polly and two sons, Sam and Josh.
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He received his PH.D in 1951 from UCLA. Hilary taught at Northwestern University (1951-1952), Princeton University (1953-1961), where he held office in the Department of Philosophy and the of Mathematics Department in 1960. Then the same at M.I.T from 1961 to 1965. He then became a member of the Progressive Labor party and for the rest of his life, He taught at Harvard (1965-2000)
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His Book "The Meaning of Meaning," differentiated ostensive and indexical meanings. He then produced like the "Philosophy and Our Mental Life"( 1975) and "Why There isn't a Ready-Made World" (1983).
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His defense of realism, the view that theories and beliefs are objectively true or false was, I believe, his most famous philosophical thought. He then challenged the thought of 'metaphysical realism' and pushed that 'internal realism' was to take the overhead placement for society.
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Hilary Putnam passed away on March 13, 2016, in his Arlington, Massachusetts, home. He was 89 when he died of Metastasized Mesothelioma.