Table of Contents

Introduction by James Conant PART 1: METAPHYSICS 1. Realism with a Human Face A. Realism B. Relativism 2. A Defense of Internal Realism 3. After Empiricism 4. Is Water Necessarily H2O? 5. Is the Causal Structure of the Physical Itself Something Physical? 6. Truth and Convention 7. Why Is a Philosopher? 8. The Craving for Objectivity PART 2: ETHICS AND AESTHETICS 9. Beyond the Fact/Value Dichotomy 10. The Place of Facts in a World of Values 11. Objectivity and the Science/Ethics Distinction 12. How Not to Solve Ethical Problems 13. Taking Rules Seriously 14. Scientific Liberty and Scientific License 15. Is There a Fact of the Matter about Fiction? PART 3: STUDIES IN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY 16. William James's Ideas (with Ruth Anna Putnam) 17. James's Theory of Perception 18. Peirce the Logician 19. The Way the World Is 20. The Greatest Logical Positivist 21. Meaning Holism 22. Nelson Goodman's Fact, Fiction, and Forecast Notes Credits Index

About the Author

Hilary Putnam was Cogan University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University. James Conant is Chester D. Tripp Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago.

Reviews

There are many strengths in these essays. Like all his work, they are highly readable; they are on deep and general issues; they contain forceful critiques, particularly of such diverse figures as Ayer and Rorty; and Putnam’s first-order views in ethics are compassionate and imaginative… Any reader of these vivid and provocative essays will be forced to rethink his views somewhere.
*Times Literary Supplement*

In this excellent collection of thematically linked essays, Harvard philosopher Putnam argues that it is time for philosophy to leave its world of system-building and to return to its true place as a form of thought intimately connected with real life… Highly recommended as an antidote to much 20th-century analytic philosophy and the claimed ‘death’ of metaphysics.
*Library Journal*

My current favorite living philosopher is Hilary Putnam, as embodied in his book Realism with a Human Face… In a tone that is simultaneously witty and generous, skeptical and self-revealing, and in sentences that are often a pleasure to read… Putnam’s philosophy is a philosophy for our world, a vehicle in which you can comfortably travel right now.
*Threepenny Review*

There are many strengths in these essays. Like all his work, they are highly readable; they are on deep and general issues; they contain forceful critiques, particularly of such diverse figures as Ayer and Rorty; and Putnam's first-order views in ethics are compassionate and imaginative... Any reader of these vivid and provocative essays will be forced to rethink his views somewhere. -- Christopher Peacocke * Times Literary Supplement *
In this excellent collection of thematically linked essays, Harvard philosopher Putnam argues that it is time for philosophy to leave its world of system-building and to return to its true place as a form of thought intimately connected with real life... Highly recommended as an antidote to much 20th-century analytic philosophy and the claimed 'death' of metaphysics. -- Terry Skeats * Library Journal *
My current favorite living philosopher is Hilary Putnam, as embodied in his book Realism with a Human Face... In a tone that is simultaneously witty and generous, skeptical and self-revealing, and in sentences that are often a pleasure to read... Putnam's philosophy is a philosophy for our world, a vehicle in which you can comfortably travel right now. -- Wendy Lesser * Threepenny Review *