Hilary Putnam has died
A little background for the non-philosophers. In the history of Western philosophy, there is a great debate. On one side is the foundational-axiomatic position. According to this general view, philosophy correctly done is like geometry. You start out with a limited set of perfectly clear and absolutely certain concepts and prepositions, and then use these to logically deduct everything important about reality. Major philosophies that assume this include cartesian dualism, materialism, and absolute idealism.<p>The contrary view is that we can know about reality, but our understandings are always imperfect, including not being able to express everything in a single set of precise concepts. In my view this was Aristotle's overall view, but in any case in the last century and a half, Western philosophy has swung in this direction, including Whitehead, Heidegger, the later Wittgenstein, and all the Pragmatists. Putnam was a leading American philosopher in this anti-foundationalist trend.<p>Let me add that the foundational-axiomatic position tends to imply that political rule should be by something like a philosopher-king, while I think the anti-foundational one implies liberal democracy.