ABSTRACT
Hilary Putnam, without doubt, is one of the most innovative and influential philosophers of our time. However, the breadth and variety of his philosophical contributions have made the task of summarizing and evaluating the full span of his work difficult, if not impossible. The present volume brings together articles by Putnam and thirteen other philosophers, many of them former students and colleagues, on central themes from his work. The papers, with a few exceptions, were first delivered at a conference in University College Dublin in March 2007, marking Hilary Putnam's 80th birthday. 1 The volume reflects the prevailing atmosphere where participants acknowledged not just the importance of Putnam's work, but also his enormous impact, as a colleague and teacher, on stimulating and shaping the thinking of several generations of philosophers in America and elsewhere. Accordingly, the collection not only engages with the work of a great philosopher, providing an overview and analysis of his thinking over several decades, but it also offers original contributions to ongoing philosophical debates in a number of areas.
