ABSTRACT
This chapter reconstructs Hilary Putnam’s position concerning James’s philosophy by analyzing the aspects that represented a significant contribution to the evolution of Putnam’s Realism. After describing the affinity between Wittgenstein and James, which guides Putnam’s interest in James’s Pragmatism, the author revises the ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical issues from which the most fruitful aspects of Pragmatism emerge. Among these issues, there is the interdependence between anti-dogmatism and antiskepticism, the procedural conception of knowledge and truth, the critique of physicalist reductionism and commonsense realism, and the importance of the practical dimension developing philosophical analysis. This way, the currentness of James’s battle against the dichotomist logic that rules our theoretical tradition is highlighted.
