PHIL 317 The Philosophy of Hilary Putnam (Not offered 2008-2009)
Hilary Putnam is considered by many (including the professor of this course) to be the world's foremost living philosopher. Putnam is famous for both changing his mind and for the breadth of his interests. He was one of the earliest proponents of the view that human beings are importantly analogous to computers, and then later, one of the chief critics of that view. Putnam's works range from the philosophy of logic and physics to the philosophy of education and history. He has written on philosophers from Aristotle and Kant to Levinas and Dewey. He has examined both the consistency of mathematics and the consistency of religion. In this course we will study the full range of Putnam's work.
Format: seminar. Requirements: frequent short assignments and presentations and a major final paper.
Prerequisites: Philosophy 101 and 102. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 12-19). Preference given to Philosophy majors.
GERRARD