ABSTRACT
One central theme in Hilary Putnam's work is that there is a deep connection between truth and trans-theoretical terms – terms such as ‘energy’ and ‘gold’, whose references have remained the same despite fundamental changes in our beliefs. 1 Putnam points out, for instance, that
just as the idealist regards ‘electron’ as theory dependent, so does he regard the semantical notions of reference and truth as theory dependent; just as the realist regards ‘electron’ as trans-theoretical, so does he regard truth and reference as trans-theoretical.
(Putnam 1975d: 198)