Hilary Putnam

High school (ages 12+)
Philosophy & Big Questions

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Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/hilary-putnam

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Hilary Putnam born?July 31, 1926
2. When did Hilary Putnam die?March 13, 2016
3. What is Hilary Putnam known for?Hypothesis of multiple realizability, Twin Earth thought experiment, Quine-Putnam indispensability argument
4. Who was Hilary Putnam?Hilary Putnam was a very smart thinker who studied many big ideas about the mind, language, math, and science. He lived from 1926 to 2016 and was known for changing his own ideas to test them carefully.
5. What is the Davis-Putnam algorithm?The Davis-Putnam algorithm helps solve logical puzzles called Boolean equations. Putnam worked with a friend named Davis to create this method, showing he also did math and computer science.

Metaphysical Realism: The philosophical view that reality exists independently of our minds and conceptual schemes.
Internal Realism: The view that reality is understood from within a conceptual framework, not independently of it.
Scientific Realism: The belief that our best scientific theories are approximately true descriptions of reality.