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{{Mainpage date|September 7|2006}} | |||
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] | |||
|action1link=Misplaced Pages:Featured article candidates/Hilary Putnam | |||
|action1result=promoted | |||
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==Twin Earth== | |||
|action2date = 2023-01-28 | |||
I think the twin earth paragraph is a bit confusing right now. It's also wrong since it is irelevant to Putnam's argument what particular liquid anyone happens to be looking at right now (as the example has it), what is key is the historical environmental factors that determine the referent of natural kind terms such as "water". I don't think the error in the article comes from any misunderstanding about Putnam, rather I think it is just the way the pargraph is currently written. How about the following: | |||
|action2link = Misplaced Pages:Featured article review/Hilary Putnam/archive1 | |||
|action2result = demoted | |||
|action2oldid = 1135858452 | |||
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One of Putnam's contributions to philosophy of language is the claim that "meaning is not in the head". Putnam illustrated this using his Twin Earth thought experiment to argue that environmental factors, even prior to anyone being aware of them, played a role in determining meaning. Twin Earth shows this, according to Putnam, since on Twin Earth everything is identical to Earth except they have XYZ where we have H2O. Because of this difference, when I say the word "water" in Earth-English it means something different from when my physically identical "twin" says the word "water" in Twin Earth-English. And since my "twin" and I are physically indistinguishable when we utter our respective words, and our words mean different things, meaning cannot be determined solely by what is in our heads. This led Putnam to adopt a version of semantic externalism with regard to meaning and mental content. ] 11:16, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
|maindate=September 7, 2006 | |||
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{{WikiProject Chicago |importance=Low |auto=Hazard-Bot}} | |||
{{WikiProject Philosophy |importance=Mid |logic=yes |mind=yes |contemporary=yes |philosopher=yes |science=yes |metaphysics=yes}} | |||
{{WikiProject Cognitive science }} | |||
{{WikiProject Neuroscience |importance= Low}} | |||
{{WikiProject University of Pennsylvania |importance= Low}} | |||
{{WikiProject University of California |importance= Low}} | |||
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{{press|org=''The New Yorker''|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060731fa_fact |title=Know It All|date=31 July 2006}} | |||
== Turing Machine description / implementation == | |||
:Davkal, the problem with this is that you are not allowed to make up your own quotes. Unless you show that your quote ("meaning is not in the head") is correct and the one in the article ("meaning just ain't in the head") is wrong, you may rewrite the quote. Second, making the article more verbose by replacing phrases with longer ones that add nothing to the article (such as "in which he argued" instead of "to argue") is not the way to go. | |||
:This section clearly needs to be rewritten. The text speaks of "I," "my" and "our" without any indication of who is speaking these words. If it's a quote from Putnam, then it needs to be so marked. And if it is a quote, then again, you are not allowed to reword it. A quote has to be the exact words a person used, no more, no less, and no rewriting. If one wants to make someone's statement clearer, then paraphrase, do not rewrite his quote. | |||
:I think this example illustrates the problem of editors trying to rewrite material that they don't adquately understand. It is clear that the words Davkal rewrote here are in a quote from Putnam. Unless it's a misquote, the wording must not be altered. The only acceptable change would be a paraphrase. And obviously, no peremissable paraphrase would say "I," "my," or "our." ] 15:42, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
The description (specification) of the Turing machine does not match the implementation. The description states that it "writes out the sequence '111' after scanning three blank squares and then stopping". The actual machine as written scans three squares in sequence, writing a '1' in any blank square - to ensure the sequence '111' - and then stops. | |||
Askolnick: your attempts to bring our disagreement from the CSICOP talk page here are contemptible. Your points are ludicrous and show a total lack of understanding of Putnam, his arguments, and the style of philosophical writing. The "I" is not really me, it is a philosophical device commonly used for clarity and brevity. I'll let you into another secret - I don't have a twin on Twin Earth or otherwise - Twin Earth doesn't really exist. ] 16:04, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
Trivially, the description as cited can be re-written as: it scans three blank squares, it stops, then it writes out the sequence '111'. This, of course, is ridiculous - it does nothing after it stops. Equally trivially, this flaw can be fixed by putting a comma after the word "squares" and changing "stopping" to "stops". | |||
:People who don't understand why encyclopedia editors never write articles in the ] should not be editing an encyclopedia. ] 16:58, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
A Turing machine to perform the corrected specification would be: | |||
::That is simple false. is a link to the Stanford Encyloèedia of Philosophy. Click on just about any link at all and you will find that the first-perosn is contantly used. Period. But this argument does not belong here. Please take such discussions to the manual pages or to your respective user pages. "Meaning just ain't in the head" is correct, however. It will be changed back. Now please take your quarrel elsehwere, though.--] 17:12, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
:{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5 | |||
:::But this is general encyclopedia, not an encyclopedia of philosophy. Articles are supposed to be written in language people unfamiliar with the subject can easily understand. Writers of good English do not write in the first person unless they are writing from their own point of view. Misplaced Pages does NOT allow ANY article to be written from a first person point of view. The current language of this article is confusing to readers of normal English. It can appear as if someone has left out some quotation marks. And please, arguments about how to write Wiki articles more clearly and in better English not only belong here, they belong on the talk pages of every article! ] 17:33, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
! State || Input B || Input 1 | |||
|- | |||
|align=center| '''1''' || move right; go to state 2 || move right | |||
|- | |||
|align=center| '''2''' || move right; go to state 3 || move right; go to state 1 | |||
|- | |||
|align=center| '''3''' || move right; go to state 4 || move right; go to state 1 | |||
|- | |||
|align=center| '''4''' || write 1; move right; go to state 5 || write 1; move right; go to state 5 | |||
|- | |||
|align=center| '''5''' || write 1; move right; go to state 6 || write 1; move right; go to state 6 | |||
|- | |||
|align=center| '''6''' || write 1; halt || write 1; halt | |||
|} | |||
If you see "write" and "move" as separate actions then states 4 and 5 both need to be split into two states. | |||
::::Fair point. If it's Misplaced Pages, it not SEP. I have no time right now to get bogged down in debates about such things anyway. that section does seem to clash with the rest of the article now. It's easily adjusted. If you see other examples though, please fix them yourself. I did not add any except in that section and I don't have time to redo a thorough copyedit. The one other thing, though:t you two seem to have a loooooooongf history of conflict over other matters which should NOT be brought to every talk page. If you want to continue arguing, even after I make these changes, please take it elsewhere. This realtively calm talk page could become another gigantic forum for matters irrelevant to Hilary Putnam. That's clearly not appropriate. --] 18:13, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
Also trivially, this is "one way" a Turing machine can be visualized. | |||
:::::I do not know enough about Hiliary Putnam to edit this article. But I do know enough about writing to point out where some writing needs improvement. I didn't asked you or anyone in particular to fix the problems I described. I pointed them out so that editors, who are able to, will fix them. | |||
:::::The fact that my constructive editorial suggestions may sometimes be met with a personal attack is no reason for me not to make them. The goal of Wiki editors should be to improve Wiki articles. Unfortunately, some editors, who lose sight of that, often respond to criticsm of their edits with name calling and other personal attacks. I can't help that. ] 19:06, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
It was never actually changed from "meaning just ain't in the head" so all is well. ] 17:17, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
Why don't I "be bold" and make the suggested changes? First off, I don't know whether the original author intended to have a correct specification for the given machine or a correct machine for the given specification. Second off, it seems that this article generates strong feelings for some, so I thought I'd socialize this change first. -- ] (]) 14:00, 25 March 2011 (UTC) | |||
::I will look at it when all the nonsense calms down.--] 12:47, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
:Maybe I was wrong about the strong feelings. -- ] (]) 01:02, 28 March 2011 (UTC) | |||
Ok, thanks.] 12:49, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
== 85th birthday conference == | |||
::You're right. The actual problem was that the example, while pointing out that the twins are physically indistinguishable, left out the important fact that Earth and twin earth are also indistinguishable, except in the one respect.--] 15:17, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
* | |||
It might also be worth noting that Putnam traced the view that meaning IS in the head, prominenent in modern congnitive science/philosophy of mind, back to the Aristotelian "cryptographer" view of meaning. By doing this we might provide a context for Putnam's claim that gives it some importance since as things stand a reaction to the point about Putnam in the article might be "so what?". ] 15:27, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
I think mentioning the conference was an ok addition on informational grounds. I won't unrevert but maybe someone else can put it back if they think it's appropriate. ] (]) 12:57, 4 May 2011 (UTC) | |||
== Algorithms are not computed == | |||
::Actually I planned to deal with the questin of importance of extrenalism by writing up a short para about how this idea influenced Donald Davidson, among others, with appropriate cites. There are many other things I wished to, and can, add. But after the experience with FAC, I didn't want to get near this article again for the nexy fify years!! --] 15:40, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
The current passage reads: | |||
I can write up a little bit for the intro to the Twin earth stuff if you'd like (and if Askolnick takes his petty arguments elsewhere).] 16:04, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
''The first formulation of such a functionalist theory was put forth by Putnam himself. This formulation, which is now called "machine-state functionalism", was inspired by analogies noted by Putnam and others between the mind and theoretical "Turing machines" capable of computing any given algorithm.'' | |||
::I've aleardy added a para on Davidson's discussion of this in "Subjective, Intersubjetibve, etc.." we don't want to fill it up. Also, I now feel a responsbility to expand the critisims section in order to balance it. Enoguh for this day!!. --] 16:07, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
But algorithms can't be computed. In simple language, algorithms are recipes, lists of action to take. They don't have to compute anything (although digital or analogue algorithms, and especially those used in digital computers often compute computable functions). One common counter-example of non-computing algorithm is a "bucket of rain water" algorithm. It's a recipe which says that you have to put out bucket every day and collect it in the evening, then measure the rain water in the bucket. It's perfectly fine, as an algorithm, but it doesn't compute anything. If this example is not enough, consider an algorithm of an infinite loop - what does it compute? | |||
Fair enough. Good work on this though - one of the best I have seen.] 16:14, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
However it is true that Turing machines are computing machines, they don't compute algorithms, they execute algorithms. Thus I'd suggest that the sentence be changed to say that the Turing machine computes a computable function (or simply function, if that's too technical), or that it executes an (digital) algorithm (again, digital classification may be too technical). Also, there's no reason for Turing machine to be quoted, it's a mathematical object just like sine curve or equilateral triangle. :) ] (]) 19:40, 3 June 2014 (UTC) | |||
:Thank you Mister Davkal.--] 16:17, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
==Putnam's pragmatic turn?== | |||
The Twin Earth para is wrong again - the central point Putnam make is that the word "water" on Earth and the word "water" on Twin Earth have different meanings therefore to say that my twin uses "the same word" is to miss the whole point. The words "water" on Earth and "water" on Twin Earth merely look and sound and appear the same to those saying them but they are in fact different words. ] 01:29, 8 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
I have read this article several times and it contain great material, but I believe that two little text is about Putnam's pragmatic turn from early 80s to present day. Most of the article is dedicated to his early writings.--] ] 09:33, 8 July 2014 (UTC) | |||
== Incorrect link in Note 9 for Putnam's 'Brain in a Vat' == | |||
::No, no,no!! A ] is a syntactic unit. "Water" is the same word as "water". They have different ] in the the two different context, hence different meanings. This is basic philosophy of langauge as well as common sense. | |||
--] 07:05, 8 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
I found that Note 9 did not provide the article. Searching for the material I found both a pdf for it at | |||
::BTW, I hope you don't start a revert war over this. I see that you have an incredibly horrid history when it comes to such things. You seem to be seeking to be banned from Misplaced Pages. Take the nonsense somwhere else please.--] 07:20, 8 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
http://ieas.unideb.hu/admin/file_2908.pdf | |||
as well as a working link in the connected Misplaced Pages page 'Brain in a Vat' | |||
I don't understand your last edit comment where you said I reintroduced first-person terms - I didn't. Whether "water" counts as the same word or not is an open question - if one individuated words according to their meaning or their referent (a perfectly plausible way to do it) then it would seem not, if words were individuated some other way then possibly. In any event I note the current version does not say they are the same word so it matters not. The only difference then, in your version, is the introduction of the names Frederick and Froderick and I am not going to revert over something like that. When you ask me to take the nonsense somewhere else I should remind you that the Twin earth section was '''wrong''' yesterday and '''correct''' today precisely on account of my involvement. I would have thought that some thanks were due rather than an unpleasant request such as this. In any event I did take the nonsense somewhere else - I took it out the section on Twin Earth and threw it away. That is why my correct version is what currently appears in the article. ] 15:04, 8 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
http://books.google.it/books?id=h3g3GicFWGoC&hl=en&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false | |||
Being a newbie, I did not feel confident to make this change myself. | |||
] (]) 14:46, 16 April 2015 (UTC)Codon3 | |||
== Multiple Realizability == | |||
Also, there should not be quotation marks around "XYZ" and "H2O" since these are simply chemical compounds and not in any way dubious.] 15:10, 8 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
This section is clear, but it does not explain to the layperson why Putnam's argument is novel or important when applied to the Mind/Body problem, whereas it is obviously not when applied to pure physics problems, for example phase transitions. For example any physical system which behaves identically to the 3D Ising problem will show the same qualitatative behavior (and universality in general). obviously a person's brain, and their "mind" and general identity remain essentially the same despite the fact that all the molecules in their body are continuously replaced, so their physical Identity is never the same. Even if one were to take the view that one molecule is literally identical to another, so in a sense the molecularly renewed person remains physically the same, this would not imply that 1 extra molecule made the person mentally as well as physically different. | |||
Also, also, your version is now ambiguous (probabbly wrong) since it is not clear whether Froderick is speaking Twin Earth-English or English. If he is speaking English and just happens to be on Twin Earth (ie. if he is Frederick's identical Earth twin and has been transported there unbeknown to him) then the context is not enough (not according to Putnam) to change the meaning of his words and so his words would mean the same as Frederick's. This is why Putnam says an Earthling would be wrong if, after being transported to Twin Earth, said the words "there is some water" - the context not being enough to transform his Earth-English into Twin Earth-English otherwise he would have been correct to say what he did. And that is why the point was made explicitly in my last version - now removed. ] 15:25, 8 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
For all practical purposes one block of ice is the same as another of similar size. , and qualitatively quite different from the same molecules as liquid water. I don't see the difference from me today and me yesterday, or why Putnam's argument is important or substantially different.] (]) 10:34, 25 October 2015 (UTC) | |||
== This lead deserves its status as a featured article == | |||
Edit: I hadn't noticed that it already _was_ a featured article. | |||
Out of thousands of leads I've mentally critiqued, this one stands out as a paragon of the form. It actually appears to summarize in an even and succinct form his many contributions, phases, and lines of inquiry (my only hesitation is that this is complex material about which I only know the barest amount). I hereby award my personal gold star to the past contributors. — ] 16:24, 20 February 2016 (UTC) | |||
*I agree that the "lead" for this article is terrific. But it is suggested, as a general rule of thumb, that the lead should be limited in its length to four (4) paragraphs, and this lead for the Putnam article is not. Ie., ''a lead section should contain no more than four well-composed paragraphs and be carefully sourced as appropriate.'' But perhaps the quality of this particular lead, as pointed out by MaxEnt, demonstrates that sometimes the "rule of thumb" is simply a guideline, and does not always apply. For more information see: ]. ] (]) 18:16, 14 March 2016 (UTC) | |||
{{re|MaxEnt|Finnusertop}} An IP editor has cut the lead radically. I urge them the discuss here rather than by edit summaries and back-and-forth reverting. <span style="font-family: serif; letter-spacing: 0.1em">– ]</span> (] ⋅ ]) 01:04, 15 March 2016 (UTC) | |||
:I don't even want to admit why I randomly commented that this was such a good lead, but here goes. | |||
:I use the MediaWiki software for my own Evernote-like system, and often my own wiki needs to link to a notable subject, so what I ended up doing was creating a shadow Misplaced Pages, where my own page links to the Misplaced Pages page, but I usually grab a few paragraphs of the lead and paste them onto my shadow page so that I have some ability to search locally and I don't have to always go back to Misplaced Pages, which also, unfortunately, sometimes changes for the worse. Gradually this became a reflex arc—and here's the embarrassing part—I now find I've created 6400 shadow pages where my own wiki contains a miniaturized copy of the Misplaced Pages lead. | |||
:Immediately when I saw this lead while creating my shadow page I went "oh, bother, it's an elephant" and then I tried to delete half the paragraphs, which usually takes about ten seconds, so I started to read in detail looking for the chaff and found basically not a word worth removing, which makes this article unique out of 6400 previous cut-and-paste quickie jobs. It's truly an awesome synopsis of a man who impacted a great many things. | |||
:What I did in my own copy of the lead to make the lead visually manageable was to highlight key material in each paragraph. "He is known for ..." became the start of a new paragraph, and that entire first sentence is highlighted in green (the whole point of having your own wiki is to draw attention to what most inspires you). Then I bold faced the following terms (mostly found after the word "in", usually as the first word of the sentence): philosophy of mind, philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, philosophy of perception, American pragmatism, ethics, Davis–Putnam algorithm, politically controversial figure. Now my own copy of the long version of the lead totally rocks. (Sadly, it didn't notice Putnam's departure, which I must now amend.) I didn't bold face "transactionalism" which heads a boring sentence (to non-specialists), yet seems to have been a important turning point in his philosophical stand for those who would know. | |||
:I love Misplaced Pages, but this kind of mindless guideline compliance drives me batty, so I found a way to care a little bit, but not too much. | |||
:I paragraph my own copy however I wish, and in my copy there are basically six paragraphs each summarizing a major life contribution. Of these, only the "philosophy of perception" makes one wish for a shorter summary, maybe something like this: | |||
::''By 2012, however, he rejected this further commitment, in favor of "transactionalism", see the relevant section for details.'' | |||
:But is forwarding out of the lead even an endorsed Misplaced Pages style? | |||
:Clearly these six meaty paragraphs would present better with some kind of a sub-head system (as the real Misplaced Pages would use bold face as I have done). | |||
:The short form from the IP editor clearly fails to summarize the subject. Maybe in 1/3 of the cases, I find an article with a horrible lead that doesn't summarize and I have to dumpster dive the main text just to make a sufficient mini-lead for my own wiki (what a PITA). With the short lead, this article would fall into my dumpster-diver category. Bear in mind I've done this quick transcription over 6000 times now. What a ghastly admission, but in any case, I would know. | |||
:When the ;TLDR IP editor goes to heaven, God has something special in mind for the first eternity (not many people know this, but eternity comes in waves): he or she will have his or her own private 18-hole golf course, only the golf ball will be the size of a grapefruit and the cups will be thimbles. Then in the next eternity, the cups will be the size of oil barrels and he/she won't want to change a thing. — ] 15:00, 15 March 2016 (UTC) | |||
*The lead currently has seven paragraphs, and according to the ] it should be kept to four, but I think this isn't compulsory to all articles. It also lacks on biographical material. Other than that, it's good. Just not sure if it's adequate for FA. ''''']<small>]</small>]''''' 17:29, 15 March 2016 (UTC) | |||
::Thanks {{re|MaxEnt|Finnusertop|Katastasi}} and I will keep my eye on this. Thanks for reverting those edits to the lead, Finnusertop. IMO, no editor needs to mess with the lead until they bring it to the talk page first. If the lead can be made to accommodate the 'guidelines', ie. 4 paragraphs, then I don't have a problem. But it will be difficult to improve on the current version, IMO. ] (]) 00:32, 16 March 2016 (UTC) | |||
== Wife's maiden name: Jacobs or Hall? == | |||
" he moved to Harvard in 1965 with his wife, Ruth Anna Jacobs, who took a " | |||
:But in the NYTimes obituary, she is identified as Ruth Anna Hall: "Professor Putnam married Ruth Anna Hall, a philosopher who taught at Wellesley College, in 1962. ". Her CV at Wellesley simply has her as R.A. Putnam. <small><span class="autosigned">— Preceding ] comment added by ] (] • ]) 01:35, 20 March 2016 (UTC)</span></small><!-- Template:Unsigned --> <!--Autosigned by SineBot--> | |||
*I just came here to ask the same question, as I'm working on ] right now. And I've found her PhD thesis listed as being by Ruth Anna Hall Mathers and . ]] 21:23, 29 August 2016 (UTC) | |||
== Status as an atheist == | |||
It seems that toward the end of his life, he became somewhat religious. | |||
https://forward.com/culture/14256/spiritual-encounters-of-a-philosopher-of-science-02570/ | |||
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/198578/remembering-hilary-putnam-harvard-philosopher-and-religious-jew | |||
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-c-nussbaum/hilary-putnam-1926-2016_b_9457774.html | |||
https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/hilary-putnam-1926-2016-philosopher-sciences-late-life-return-his-native-judaism | |||
] (]) 12:12, 15 January 2018 (UTC) | |||
Putnam did become a religious Jew later in life, and certainly was not an atheist. However, he didn't believe in an afterlife (denial of an afterlife among Jews is quite common) nor did he appear to believe in a personal or a loving God. I would describe him as an agnostic deist. | |||
== Influences/doctoral Students Additions == | |||
Something I noticed glancing Putnam's page, was that some of his well known students and Ned Block were missing. I'd also make the recommendation of adding Block and McDowell to his influences, as he cited them as being big influences on him . <!-- Template:Unsigned --><small class="autosigned">— Preceding ] comment added by ] (] • ]) 01:29, 11 November 2019 (UTC)</small> <!--Autosigned by SineBot--> | |||
== External links == | |||
:As a featured article this is to be "considered to be some of the best articles Misplaced Pages has to offer". I read the article and found it a good read but sometimes things just "creep in" and we end up with ]. | |||
:The "External links" section needs to be more involved when reviewing articles to include: ], ], and ], with a goal of ]. I don't see that fifteen "External links" exactly follows along those lines so there needs to be some article incorporation or trimming. ] (]) 09:43, 4 February 2020 (UTC) | |||
== ] review == | |||
Hi article-watchers, I am starting a review of this article for ], a task force which looks at ] that were promoted before 2016. I have made some edits to the article during my review, and I hope others will review my edits to ensure I did not change the meaning of anything. I also have some questions below: | |||
*The article says Putnam was born in Chicago and grew up in Paris, but does not mention when he moved to France. Do we know when this happened? | |||
*"The Harvard administration considered these activities disruptive and attempted to censure Putnam, but two other faculty members criticized the procedures." Do we know which faculty members this was? | |||
*Is encyclopedia.com the best source we can find for this information? I think there are more high-quality sources available. | |||
*The life section seems to have lots of gaps, as there is very little information on his life in the 1980s and in the 2000s. I understand that there are other sections which address his theories and accomplishments, but I think this article needs to be organised chronologically; afterall, this is a biography article. | |||
*A similar problem to what is outlined above, some of Putnam's accomplishments do not include dates on when they were first published or gained widespread fame. For example, when was the "brain in a vat" thought experiment first proposed? When did he show that "there are many levels of the constructible hierarchy that add no subsets of the integers"? When were his theories, outlined in the "Philosophy of mathematics" section, first published? | |||
*The references are in various styles. Can someone standardise the references for this article? | |||
I have corrected the section on Twin earth for the last time. If you think yourself bigger than the article please please feel free to revert to an incorrect version. Either way I win - Wiki is a community of reasonable people who are willing to accept corrections; or Wiki is a bunch of pricks who wants their writing to be seen.] 00:37, 9 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
*I am surprised that there isn't a Legacy section. Are there any monuments, statues, roads, or awards named for this person? Any information on his legacy within different groups and places? | |||
Those are just some initial thoughts, I look forward to doing a deeper when the above concerns are addressed. ] (]) 23:07, 17 December 2021 (UTC) | |||
==Sorry for accusing people== | |||
I apologize for suggesting that people had not noicted the page-move vandalism. I looked in the history and tried to revert, but it seemed to have been there for hours. Then I realized you have to actually move the page back and that it had only been there for about 7 minutes. Good job.--] 07:22, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
:, issues unaddressed, new uncited text added; listing at ]. ] (]) 02:02, 28 June 2022 (UTC) | |||
==Brain in a vat== | |||
:I'm not sure that the {{tq|very little information on his life in the 1980s and in the 2000s}} issue is really a problem. There can be a "life ends at tenure" effect with academic biographies; once someone is established in a particular place and any kids are born, the only events that get documented are career events. {{pb}} It's probably too early for statues and roads, but there may be awards or scholarships. I'll look into that. ] (]) 14:43, 20 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
"In the field of epistemology, he is known for the "brain in a vat" thought experiment" er... didn't that obscure continental philosopher René Descartes come up with that idea, in the seventeenth century? ] 07:39, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
::Somewhat to my surprise, I have found nothing of note in this regard. I was expecting at least a few things along the lines of a "Hilary Putnam Memorial Scholarship" or a "Hilary Putnam Lecture Series", but nothing like that has turned up yet. What's been named after Putnam have been arguments, which the article already talks about. ] (]) 18:50, 30 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
: I'm concerned whether past talk page messages have been addressed. ] (]) 16:58, 20 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
::No, that was the ] experiment. Rememeber from Philsophy 101?? Or did you even get that far?--] 08:02, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
: How do we know ? ] (]) 17:04, 20 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
==So this is the kind of BULLSHIT you get after the torture of putting this through FAC== | |||
::@], did a quick search and managed to find where he mentions the blog. It's on the first page so should be viewable from the preview even if you don't have access to the full paper. ] (]) 18:38, 20 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
What nonsesne?? Even the talk page should be protected. <s>How about a new cartegory: talk page vandalism, cheap shots and bullshit?</s>--] 08:06, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
:::That helps ... we might add that as a supplementary note to those citations as "proof" ... I can do it later, but for now am fuzzy-brained with COVID ... thx! ] (]) 19:04, 20 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
::::His blog, so I added it to External links in such a way that it verifies our use of the blog as a source in the article. ] (]) 18:54, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
:The "References" section was actually completely redundant with the footnoted citations enumerated in "Notes", so I cut it and renamed "Notes" to "References". ] (]) 17:36, 20 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
::Seems fine ... in the "olden days", that was sometimes done, and because that was the single worse FAC I ever experienced, I doubt anyone was worrying about that particular detail. ] (]) 17:50, 20 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
: I am also concerned about the growing list of uncited info in the infobox; there is probably plenty more than seen in . ] (]) 17:57, 20 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
==Assume bad faith== | |||
::Is there another list of his doctoral students somewhere, besides ? ] (]) 18:35, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
The reality of this fundamnetal axion of human nature should be obvious from today's little experiment. --] 08:14, 7 September 2006 (UTC)--] 08:14, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
:::I do not know; I have always found the idea of such a list in infoboxes troubling, because how do we know it's comprehensive? My view is that unless there is independent coverage about them as notable that we can cite, we should leave them out. ] (]) 18:56, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
:::That infobox is a classic infobox nightmare. ] (]) 18:57, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
::::I'm rather resentful over the existence of "influenced" and "influenced by" fields in infoboxes. All too often, that's too vague a concept to fit into a neatly tabular format. ] (]) 19:07, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
:::::Who will object if we delete the lot? ] (]) 19:10, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
:::::I could understand if the entry were significant enough that it warranted a well-cited paragraph in the text, but not infobox material. ] (]) 19:11, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
::::::I think of infoboxes as conceptually part of the ], as they share the task of summarizing the text. Accordingly, my inclination would be to remove everything from the infobox that the text does not explicitly cover. We're not a database like the ]. ] (]) 19:26, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
:::::::BINGO. ] (]) 19:32, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
::::::::I'll try to get around to this in the next few days if nobody objects (or beats me to it). ] (]) 20:34, 29 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
:Hi, not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this or if it should be put in the FAR page, but I have some concerns about the sourcing in the article that could be a fruitful avenue to improving the article and ensuring it meets the FA criteria. I recently rewrote the philosophy of mathematics section of the article because it contained some pretty large errors. For example, it presented a form of the indispensability argument which is due to ] and attributed it to Putnam. However, Putnam in multiple places distanced himself from that form of the argument (some details on this can be seen at ]). It also said he defended a clause in that form of the argument which claims we should have ontological commitment to ''only'' the entities of science. But, according to Putnam himself, he never endorsed anything like that in his life (see ). I think the main reason why these errors were able to survive in the article is because they were cited to primary sources. This is obviously in violation of the requirement that interpretations of primary sources ''require'' reliable secondary sources, otherwise it is basically just original research. Looking over the article, it seems that there may be some other areas that rely ''solely'' on interpretations of primary sources without being backed up by a secondary source. However, unlike the indispensability argument, I personally do not have the knowledge on Putnam or the secondary literature on his work to fix these instances. Therefore, I'm writing here to suggest that a good way of improving the article would be to find places in the article which rely only on primary sources and finding secondary sources to back them up, to make sure that the text is genuinely verifiable and not an incorrect interpretation of a primary source. Hope this is useful to those currently working on the article. ] (]) 15:02, 24 August 2022 (UTC) | |||
==Hilbert's Tenth== | |||
Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say that Putnam was involved in proving that Hilbert's Tenth Theorem is unsolvable, rather than saying he solved it? The introduction makes it sound as if he found a solution, whereas the article states that he helped demonstrate there was no solution. ] 12:31, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
== I added the name "Alan Garfinkel" to the list of Hilary Putnam's students == | |||
:Yes. I'll take a look at it and see if I can fix it. Th problem has been fightint the vandals all day. --] 12:43, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
I added the name "Alan Garfinkel" to the list of Hilary Putnam's students. (PhD 1975, Putnam was principal supervisor) ] (]) 00:40, 30 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
==a suggestion for featured articles== | |||
perhaps featured articles should be protected for a short time period during/after their featured status. If there are any glaring errors then that could be addressed by a duty-administrator who can unlock and edit. Anyone else interested enough to contribute can put something on the talk page and wait a day or so for the discussion to come up and the changes to be made. ] 12:53, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
:Do you have an independent (third-party) source? Unless there are secondary mentions of the significance of Putnam as a mentor, the content would not be ] in this article (although it may be appropriate at ]. ] (]) 00:43, 30 July 2022 (UTC) | |||
:There are other pages for these comments (which i agree with). Try ] or something like that.--] 12:56, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
::Hi Sandy- Here are a couple of references. But it looks like you are scrapping the list of students altogether. | |||
::Thanks | |||
::Alan | |||
::https://philarchive.org/archive/STUBR-4 | |||
::https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Place_of_Probability_in_Science/MT2oJfY0Zf8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=garfinkel+putnam&pg=PA146&printsec=frontcover ] (]) 02:36, 1 August 2022 (UTC) | |||
:::Real sources !! :) Perhaps you can work out with {{u|XOR'easter}} if something there should be working in to the body of the article. Suggestions? ] (]) 02:38, 1 August 2022 (UTC) | |||
::::Thanks for the references! I am not at all sure how to handle the matter of students. He had more than a dozen that probably qualify as wiki-notable, judging from the list. (Not everyone on that list already has an article here, but that list doesn't include all of his students.) Maybe we could have a paragraph somewhere that starts, {{tq|Putnam had N doctoral students, including X who worked with Putnam on Y...}}. That would depend upon having a complete list of his doctoral students, which I haven't been able to turn up, though it's entirely possible that it exists and I've overlooked it. ] (]) 14:34, 1 August 2022 (UTC) | |||
== PLP == | |||
::No. See ] ] 17:53, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
By the way: the story of Progressive Labor inside SDS is interesting in its own right, not only at the end when it must have been seen as the sane alternative to Weather. Read about this story some time ago, perhaps in "Radical America" (it's all online). --] (]) 13:33, 19 September 2022 (UTC) | |||
All fair points - I withdraw my suggestion.] 17:55, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
== Reichenbach and Positivism == | |||
==Important comment pulled from archive== | |||
There really ought to be a section on his Philosophy of Science. Specifically, his work on Quantum Mechanics, alternative Logics, etc. 66.108.4.183 07:14, 7 September 2006 (UTC) Allen Roth | |||
Logical Positivism was the leading philosophy in much of the US (Quine, Sellars, etc.), but in the 1950 in Europe Sartre, Heidegger and Wittgenstein were the big guys.--] (]) 13:40, 19 September 2022 (UTC) | |||
:Reply: I '''absolutely''' agree. Do you want to write it? What can you tell me about?? We need (I need!!) people who know this material and are willing to actually '''step up to the plate'''. Write it up, Man!! Can't do everything myself.--] 14:52, 7 September 2006 (UTC) | |||
== تطوير الذات == | |||
==Article Problem== | |||
اهتمام ] (]) 21:05, 19 March 2023 (UTC) | |||
:Wanted to read this page, all it said was something about bob and a bitch, wheres the real page gone? |
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Turing Machine description / implementation
The description (specification) of the Turing machine does not match the implementation. The description states that it "writes out the sequence '111' after scanning three blank squares and then stopping". The actual machine as written scans three squares in sequence, writing a '1' in any blank square - to ensure the sequence '111' - and then stops.
Trivially, the description as cited can be re-written as: it scans three blank squares, it stops, then it writes out the sequence '111'. This, of course, is ridiculous - it does nothing after it stops. Equally trivially, this flaw can be fixed by putting a comma after the word "squares" and changing "stopping" to "stops".
A Turing machine to perform the corrected specification would be:
State Input B Input 1 1 move right; go to state 2 move right 2 move right; go to state 3 move right; go to state 1 3 move right; go to state 4 move right; go to state 1 4 write 1; move right; go to state 5 write 1; move right; go to state 5 5 write 1; move right; go to state 6 write 1; move right; go to state 6 6 write 1; halt write 1; halt
If you see "write" and "move" as separate actions then states 4 and 5 both need to be split into two states.
Also trivially, this is "one way" a Turing machine can be visualized.
Why don't I "be bold" and make the suggested changes? First off, I don't know whether the original author intended to have a correct specification for the given machine or a correct machine for the given specification. Second off, it seems that this article generates strong feelings for some, so I thought I'd socialize this change first. -- Jsdy (talk) 14:00, 25 March 2011 (UTC)
- Maybe I was wrong about the strong feelings. -- Jsdy (talk) 01:02, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
85th birthday conference
I think mentioning the conference was an ok addition on informational grounds. I won't unrevert but maybe someone else can put it back if they think it's appropriate. 69.111.194.167 (talk) 12:57, 4 May 2011 (UTC)
Algorithms are not computed
The current passage reads:
The first formulation of such a functionalist theory was put forth by Putnam himself. This formulation, which is now called "machine-state functionalism", was inspired by analogies noted by Putnam and others between the mind and theoretical "Turing machines" capable of computing any given algorithm.
But algorithms can't be computed. In simple language, algorithms are recipes, lists of action to take. They don't have to compute anything (although digital or analogue algorithms, and especially those used in digital computers often compute computable functions). One common counter-example of non-computing algorithm is a "bucket of rain water" algorithm. It's a recipe which says that you have to put out bucket every day and collect it in the evening, then measure the rain water in the bucket. It's perfectly fine, as an algorithm, but it doesn't compute anything. If this example is not enough, consider an algorithm of an infinite loop - what does it compute?
However it is true that Turing machines are computing machines, they don't compute algorithms, they execute algorithms. Thus I'd suggest that the sentence be changed to say that the Turing machine computes a computable function (or simply function, if that's too technical), or that it executes an (digital) algorithm (again, digital classification may be too technical). Also, there's no reason for Turing machine to be quoted, it's a mathematical object just like sine curve or equilateral triangle. :) 79.176.121.21 (talk) 19:40, 3 June 2014 (UTC)
Putnam's pragmatic turn?
I have read this article several times and it contain great material, but I believe that two little text is about Putnam's pragmatic turn from early 80s to present day. Most of the article is dedicated to his early writings.--Vojvodae please be free to write :) 09:33, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
Incorrect link in Note 9 for Putnam's 'Brain in a Vat'
I found that Note 9 did not provide the article. Searching for the material I found both a pdf for it at http://ieas.unideb.hu/admin/file_2908.pdf
as well as a working link in the connected Misplaced Pages page 'Brain in a Vat' http://books.google.it/books?id=h3g3GicFWGoC&hl=en&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Being a newbie, I did not feel confident to make this change myself. Codon3 (talk) 14:46, 16 April 2015 (UTC)Codon3
Multiple Realizability
This section is clear, but it does not explain to the layperson why Putnam's argument is novel or important when applied to the Mind/Body problem, whereas it is obviously not when applied to pure physics problems, for example phase transitions. For example any physical system which behaves identically to the 3D Ising problem will show the same qualitatative behavior (and universality in general). obviously a person's brain, and their "mind" and general identity remain essentially the same despite the fact that all the molecules in their body are continuously replaced, so their physical Identity is never the same. Even if one were to take the view that one molecule is literally identical to another, so in a sense the molecularly renewed person remains physically the same, this would not imply that 1 extra molecule made the person mentally as well as physically different. For all practical purposes one block of ice is the same as another of similar size. , and qualitatively quite different from the same molecules as liquid water. I don't see the difference from me today and me yesterday, or why Putnam's argument is important or substantially different.Paulhummerman (talk) 10:34, 25 October 2015 (UTC)
This lead deserves its status as a featured article
Edit: I hadn't noticed that it already _was_ a featured article.
Out of thousands of leads I've mentally critiqued, this one stands out as a paragon of the form. It actually appears to summarize in an even and succinct form his many contributions, phases, and lines of inquiry (my only hesitation is that this is complex material about which I only know the barest amount). I hereby award my personal gold star to the past contributors. — MaxEnt 16:24, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
- I agree that the "lead" for this article is terrific. But it is suggested, as a general rule of thumb, that the lead should be limited in its length to four (4) paragraphs, and this lead for the Putnam article is not. Ie., a lead section should contain no more than four well-composed paragraphs and be carefully sourced as appropriate. But perhaps the quality of this particular lead, as pointed out by MaxEnt, demonstrates that sometimes the "rule of thumb" is simply a guideline, and does not always apply. For more information see: Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style/Lead section. Christian Roess (talk) 18:16, 14 March 2016 (UTC)
@MaxEnt and Finnusertop: An IP editor has cut the lead radically. I urge them the discuss here rather than by edit summaries and back-and-forth reverting. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 01:04, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
- I don't even want to admit why I randomly commented that this was such a good lead, but here goes.
- I use the MediaWiki software for my own Evernote-like system, and often my own wiki needs to link to a notable subject, so what I ended up doing was creating a shadow Misplaced Pages, where my own page links to the Misplaced Pages page, but I usually grab a few paragraphs of the lead and paste them onto my shadow page so that I have some ability to search locally and I don't have to always go back to Misplaced Pages, which also, unfortunately, sometimes changes for the worse. Gradually this became a reflex arc—and here's the embarrassing part—I now find I've created 6400 shadow pages where my own wiki contains a miniaturized copy of the Misplaced Pages lead.
- Immediately when I saw this lead while creating my shadow page I went "oh, bother, it's an elephant" and then I tried to delete half the paragraphs, which usually takes about ten seconds, so I started to read in detail looking for the chaff and found basically not a word worth removing, which makes this article unique out of 6400 previous cut-and-paste quickie jobs. It's truly an awesome synopsis of a man who impacted a great many things.
- What I did in my own copy of the lead to make the lead visually manageable was to highlight key material in each paragraph. "He is known for ..." became the start of a new paragraph, and that entire first sentence is highlighted in green (the whole point of having your own wiki is to draw attention to what most inspires you). Then I bold faced the following terms (mostly found after the word "in", usually as the first word of the sentence): philosophy of mind, philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, philosophy of perception, American pragmatism, ethics, Davis–Putnam algorithm, politically controversial figure. Now my own copy of the long version of the lead totally rocks. (Sadly, it didn't notice Putnam's departure, which I must now amend.) I didn't bold face "transactionalism" which heads a boring sentence (to non-specialists), yet seems to have been a important turning point in his philosophical stand for those who would know.
- I love Misplaced Pages, but this kind of mindless guideline compliance drives me batty, so I found a way to care a little bit, but not too much.
- I paragraph my own copy however I wish, and in my copy there are basically six paragraphs each summarizing a major life contribution. Of these, only the "philosophy of perception" makes one wish for a shorter summary, maybe something like this:
- By 2012, however, he rejected this further commitment, in favor of "transactionalism", see the relevant section for details.
- But is forwarding out of the lead even an endorsed Misplaced Pages style?
- Clearly these six meaty paragraphs would present better with some kind of a sub-head system (as the real Misplaced Pages would use bold face as I have done).
- The short form from the IP editor clearly fails to summarize the subject. Maybe in 1/3 of the cases, I find an article with a horrible lead that doesn't summarize and I have to dumpster dive the main text just to make a sufficient mini-lead for my own wiki (what a PITA). With the short lead, this article would fall into my dumpster-diver category. Bear in mind I've done this quick transcription over 6000 times now. What a ghastly admission, but in any case, I would know.
- When the ;TLDR IP editor goes to heaven, God has something special in mind for the first eternity (not many people know this, but eternity comes in waves): he or she will have his or her own private 18-hole golf course, only the golf ball will be the size of a grapefruit and the cups will be thimbles. Then in the next eternity, the cups will be the size of oil barrels and he/she won't want to change a thing. — MaxEnt 15:00, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
- The lead currently has seven paragraphs, and according to the guideline it should be kept to four, but I think this isn't compulsory to all articles. It also lacks on biographical material. Other than that, it's good. Just not sure if it's adequate for FA. κατάσταση 17:29, 15 March 2016 (UTC)
- Thanks @MaxEnt, Finnusertop, and Katastasi: and I will keep my eye on this. Thanks for reverting those edits to the lead, Finnusertop. IMO, no editor needs to mess with the lead until they bring it to the talk page first. If the lead can be made to accommodate the 'guidelines', ie. 4 paragraphs, then I don't have a problem. But it will be difficult to improve on the current version, IMO. Christian Roess (talk) 00:32, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
Wife's maiden name: Jacobs or Hall?
" he moved to Harvard in 1965 with his wife, Ruth Anna Jacobs, who took a "
- But in the NYTimes obituary, she is identified as Ruth Anna Hall: "Professor Putnam married Ruth Anna Hall, a philosopher who taught at Wellesley College, in 1962. ". Her CV at Wellesley simply has her as R.A. Putnam. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ABShippee (talk • contribs) 01:35, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
- I just came here to ask the same question, as I'm working on Ruth Anna Putnam right now. And I've found her PhD thesis listed as being by Ruth Anna Hall Mathers here and here. PamD 21:23, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
Status as an atheist
It seems that toward the end of his life, he became somewhat religious. https://forward.com/culture/14256/spiritual-encounters-of-a-philosopher-of-science-02570/ http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/198578/remembering-hilary-putnam-harvard-philosopher-and-religious-jew https://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-c-nussbaum/hilary-putnam-1926-2016_b_9457774.html https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/hilary-putnam-1926-2016-philosopher-sciences-late-life-return-his-native-judaism Yaakovaryeh (talk) 12:12, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
Putnam did become a religious Jew later in life, and certainly was not an atheist. However, he didn't believe in an afterlife (denial of an afterlife among Jews is quite common) nor did he appear to believe in a personal or a loving God. I would describe him as an agnostic deist.
Influences/doctoral Students Additions
Something I noticed glancing Putnam's page, was that some of his well known students Alva Noë and Ned Block were missing. I'd also make the recommendation of adding Block and McDowell to his influences, as he cited them as being big influences on him late in his career. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ScreamingUrethra (talk • contribs) 01:29, 11 November 2019 (UTC)
External links
- As a featured article this is to be "considered to be some of the best articles Misplaced Pages has to offer". I read the article and found it a good read but sometimes things just "creep in" and we end up with link farming.
- The "External links" section needs to be more involved when reviewing articles to include: ELPOINTS #3, links to avoid, and EL official, with a goal of minimizing the number of links. I don't see that fifteen "External links" exactly follows along those lines so there needs to be some article incorporation or trimming. Otr500 (talk) 09:43, 4 February 2020 (UTC)
WP:URFA/2020 review
Hi article-watchers, I am starting a review of this article for WP:URFA/2020, a task force which looks at featured articles that were promoted before 2016. I have made some edits to the article during my review, and I hope others will review my edits to ensure I did not change the meaning of anything. I also have some questions below:
- The article says Putnam was born in Chicago and grew up in Paris, but does not mention when he moved to France. Do we know when this happened?
- "The Harvard administration considered these activities disruptive and attempted to censure Putnam, but two other faculty members criticized the procedures." Do we know which faculty members this was?
- Is encyclopedia.com the best source we can find for this information? I think there are more high-quality sources available.
- The life section seems to have lots of gaps, as there is very little information on his life in the 1980s and in the 2000s. I understand that there are other sections which address his theories and accomplishments, but I think this article needs to be organised chronologically; afterall, this is a biography article.
- A similar problem to what is outlined above, some of Putnam's accomplishments do not include dates on when they were first published or gained widespread fame. For example, when was the "brain in a vat" thought experiment first proposed? When did he show that "there are many levels of the constructible hierarchy that add no subsets of the integers"? When were his theories, outlined in the "Philosophy of mathematics" section, first published?
- The references are in various styles. Can someone standardise the references for this article?
- I am surprised that there isn't a Legacy section. Are there any monuments, statues, roads, or awards named for this person? Any information on his legacy within different groups and places?
Those are just some initial thoughts, I look forward to doing a deeper when the above concerns are addressed. Z1720 (talk) 23:07, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
- Diff since notice, issues unaddressed, new uncited text added; listing at WP:FARGIVEN. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 02:02, 28 June 2022 (UTC)
- I'm not sure that the
very little information on his life in the 1980s and in the 2000s
issue is really a problem. There can be a "life ends at tenure" effect with academic biographies; once someone is established in a particular place and any kids are born, the only events that get documented are career events. It's probably too early for statues and roads, but there may be awards or scholarships. I'll look into that. XOR'easter (talk) 14:43, 20 July 2022 (UTC)- Somewhat to my surprise, I have found nothing of note in this regard. I was expecting at least a few things along the lines of a "Hilary Putnam Memorial Scholarship" or a "Hilary Putnam Lecture Series", but nothing like that has turned up yet. What's been named after Putnam have been arguments, which the article already talks about. XOR'easter (talk) 18:50, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
- I'm concerned whether past talk page messages have been addressed. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:58, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- How do we know this is his blog? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:04, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- @SandyGeorgia, did a quick search and managed to find this paper where he mentions the blog. It's on the first page so should be viewable from the preview even if you don't have access to the full paper. Alduin2000 (talk) 18:38, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- That helps ... we might add that as a supplementary note to those citations as "proof" ... I can do it later, but for now am fuzzy-brained with COVID ... thx! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:04, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- His blog, so I added it to External links in such a way that it verifies our use of the blog as a source in the article. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:54, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- That helps ... we might add that as a supplementary note to those citations as "proof" ... I can do it later, but for now am fuzzy-brained with COVID ... thx! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:04, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- @SandyGeorgia, did a quick search and managed to find this paper where he mentions the blog. It's on the first page so should be viewable from the preview even if you don't have access to the full paper. Alduin2000 (talk) 18:38, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- The "References" section was actually completely redundant with the footnoted citations enumerated in "Notes", so I cut it and renamed "Notes" to "References". XOR'easter (talk) 17:36, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- Seems fine ... in the "olden days", that was sometimes done, and because that was the single worse FAC I ever experienced, I doubt anyone was worrying about that particular detail. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:50, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- I am also concerned about the growing list of uncited info in the infobox; there is probably plenty more than seen in this recent diff. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:57, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
- Is there another list of his doctoral students somewhere, besides this? XOR'easter (talk) 18:35, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- I do not know; I have always found the idea of such a list in infoboxes troubling, because how do we know it's comprehensive? My view is that unless there is independent coverage about them as notable that we can cite, we should leave them out. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:56, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- That infobox is a classic infobox nightmare. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:57, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- I'm rather resentful over the existence of "influenced" and "influenced by" fields in infoboxes. All too often, that's too vague a concept to fit into a neatly tabular format. XOR'easter (talk) 19:07, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- Who will object if we delete the lot? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:10, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- I could understand if the entry were significant enough that it warranted a well-cited paragraph in the text, but not infobox material. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:11, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- I think of infoboxes as conceptually part of the lede, as they share the task of summarizing the text. Accordingly, my inclination would be to remove everything from the infobox that the text does not explicitly cover. We're not a database like the Mathematics Genealogy Project. XOR'easter (talk) 19:26, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- BINGO. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:32, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- I'll try to get around to this in the next few days if nobody objects (or beats me to it). XOR'easter (talk) 20:34, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- BINGO. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:32, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- I think of infoboxes as conceptually part of the lede, as they share the task of summarizing the text. Accordingly, my inclination would be to remove everything from the infobox that the text does not explicitly cover. We're not a database like the Mathematics Genealogy Project. XOR'easter (talk) 19:26, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- I'm rather resentful over the existence of "influenced" and "influenced by" fields in infoboxes. All too often, that's too vague a concept to fit into a neatly tabular format. XOR'easter (talk) 19:07, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- Is there another list of his doctoral students somewhere, besides this? XOR'easter (talk) 18:35, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
- Hi, not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this or if it should be put in the FAR page, but I have some concerns about the sourcing in the article that could be a fruitful avenue to improving the article and ensuring it meets the FA criteria. I recently rewrote the philosophy of mathematics section of the article because it contained some pretty large errors. For example, it presented a form of the indispensability argument which is due to Mark Colyvan and attributed it to Putnam. However, Putnam in multiple places distanced himself from that form of the argument (some details on this can be seen at Quine–Putnam indispensability argument#Continued development of the argument). It also said he defended a clause in that form of the argument which claims we should have ontological commitment to only the entities of science. But, according to Putnam himself, he never endorsed anything like that in his life (see here). I think the main reason why these errors were able to survive in the article is because they were cited to primary sources. This is obviously in violation of the requirement that interpretations of primary sources require reliable secondary sources, otherwise it is basically just original research. Looking over the article, it seems that there may be some other areas that rely solely on interpretations of primary sources without being backed up by a secondary source. However, unlike the indispensability argument, I personally do not have the knowledge on Putnam or the secondary literature on his work to fix these instances. Therefore, I'm writing here to suggest that a good way of improving the article would be to find places in the article which rely only on primary sources and finding secondary sources to back them up, to make sure that the text is genuinely verifiable and not an incorrect interpretation of a primary source. Hope this is useful to those currently working on the article. Alduin2000 (talk) 15:02, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
I added the name "Alan Garfinkel" to the list of Hilary Putnam's students
I added the name "Alan Garfinkel" to the list of Hilary Putnam's students. (PhD 1975, Putnam was principal supervisor) Agarfink (talk) 00:40, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
- Do you have an independent (third-party) source? Unless there are secondary mentions of the significance of Putnam as a mentor, the content would not be due weight in this article (although it may be appropriate at Alan Garfinkel. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:43, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
- Hi Sandy- Here are a couple of references. But it looks like you are scrapping the list of students altogether.
- Thanks
- Alan
- https://philarchive.org/archive/STUBR-4
- https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Place_of_Probability_in_Science/MT2oJfY0Zf8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=garfinkel+putnam&pg=PA146&printsec=frontcover Agarfink (talk) 02:36, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
- Real sources !! :) Perhaps you can work out with XOR'easter if something there should be working in to the body of the article. Suggestions? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 02:38, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
- Thanks for the references! I am not at all sure how to handle the matter of students. He had more than a dozen that probably qualify as wiki-notable, judging from the MGP list. (Not everyone on that list already has an article here, but that list doesn't include all of his students.) Maybe we could have a paragraph somewhere that starts,
Putnam had N doctoral students, including X who worked with Putnam on Y...
. That would depend upon having a complete list of his doctoral students, which I haven't been able to turn up, though it's entirely possible that it exists and I've overlooked it. XOR'easter (talk) 14:34, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
- Thanks for the references! I am not at all sure how to handle the matter of students. He had more than a dozen that probably qualify as wiki-notable, judging from the MGP list. (Not everyone on that list already has an article here, but that list doesn't include all of his students.) Maybe we could have a paragraph somewhere that starts,
- Real sources !! :) Perhaps you can work out with XOR'easter if something there should be working in to the body of the article. Suggestions? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 02:38, 1 August 2022 (UTC)
PLP
By the way: the story of Progressive Labor inside SDS is interesting in its own right, not only at the end when it must have been seen as the sane alternative to Weather. Read about this story some time ago, perhaps in "Radical America" (it's all online). --Ralfdetlef (talk) 13:33, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
Reichenbach and Positivism
Logical Positivism was the leading philosophy in much of the US (Quine, Sellars, etc.), but in the 1950 in Europe Sartre, Heidegger and Wittgenstein were the big guys.--Ralfdetlef (talk) 13:40, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
تطوير الذات
اهتمام Adam hash my (talk) 21:05, 19 March 2023 (UTC)
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