Philosophy as Dialogue

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. (Sept.)