Philosophy as Dialogue
-
- US$45.99
-
- US$45.99
출판사 설명
A collection of Hilary Putnam’s stimulating, incisive responses to such varied and eminent thinkers as Richard Rorty, Jürgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky, Martha Nussbaum, W. V. Quine, Wilfrid Sellars, John McDowell, and Cornel West.
Hilary Putnam (1926–2016) was renowned—some would say infamous—for changing his philosophical positions over the course of his long and much-admired career. This collection of essays, the first of its kind, showcases how his ideas evolved as he wrestled with the work of his contemporaries.
Divided into five thematic sections, Philosophy as Dialogue begins with questions of language and formal logic, tracing Putnam’s reactions to the arguments of Wilfrid Sellars, Noam Chomsky, Charles Travis, and Tyler Burge. Next, it brings together Putnam’s responses to realists and antirealists, philosophers of science and of perception, followed by forays into pragmatism and skepticism. While Putnam devoted most of his efforts to logic, mathematics, and the philosophy of mind, he also took up issues in moral philosophy, politics, and religion. Here we read him in conversation with giants of these fields, including Martha Nussbaum, Jürgen Habermas, Elizabeth Anscombe, Cora Diamond, Richard Rorty, and Franz Rosenzweig. Finally, Philosophy as Dialogue presents Putnam’s deeply personal and largely unknown writing on philosophical method that reveals the influence of W. V. Quine, Michael Dummett, and Stanley Cavell on his work.
Once more, Mario De Caro and David Macarthur have presented and introduced a choice selection of Hilary Putnam’s writings that will change the way he is understood. Most of all, these thirty-six replies and responses to his contemporaries showcase the extraordinary—perhaps even unparalleled—breadth of his work, and his capacity to engage deeply with seemingly every mode of philosophy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Editors De Caro and Macarthur compile a potent selection of essays by late philosopher Hilary Putnam (1926–2016). Selecting 35 pieces composed between 1960 and 2016, the editors highlight Putnam's responses to contemporary philosophers, emphasizing the "metaphilosophical view... that philosophy, at its best, is intrinsically dialogical." The essays illuminate Putnam's frequent changes of mind, which often happened with the "help of the views of agonistic philosophers." For example, Putnam defends theism in a 1994 response to philosopher Simon Blackburn, but critiques it in a 2016 reply to Franz Rosenzweig and suggests that God is a "human projection." Other pieces engage with the works of such heavyweights as Elizabeth Anscombe, Noam Chomsky, and Cornel West, and interrogate the boundaries of conceptual relativism (the idea that certain incompatible scientific frameworks can be used to describe the same phenomena) and whether the mind can have "accurate representations without language." The striking variety of essays testify to Putnam's wide-ranging intellect, and his penetrating responses to fellow philosophers exemplify his belief that one of the purposes of philosophy is to "encounter texts which anger, provoke, inspire, transform, repulse, or all of these at once." Scholars will appreciate this edifying addition to Putnam's oeuvre.
