Philosopher Profiles

Many undergraduate philosophy students are surprised to discover that Hilary Putnam is a man: for most academics the name is, of course, more commonly associated with Hilary Duff. However, how anyone could be surprised that a famous philosopher of language is actually a man remains a mystery.

Putnam is most famous for his views on semantic externalism: this is the view that what words mean is not a mental thing but rather that meaning is out there (along with the truth I suppose). Some people have accused Putnam of going too far with semantic externalism when he theorised not only that meaning “Ain't in the head”, but that it was to be found under a rock in his garden. More recent theories of semantic externalism claim that meaning is not in the head, but that it is instead to be found on Wiktionary.

Putnam is also well known for his views that people in a brain in a vat world cannot talk about being in a brain in a vat world because their words will not refer to actual brains but to the things they call brains in their world. The Matrix largely disproved this theory by demonstrating that we are not brains in vats at all, but rather shaved bodies in vats. Completely different.

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