Ethics without Ontology

Looking at the efforts of philosophers from the Enlightenment through the 20th Century, Hilary Putnam traces the ways in which ethical problems arise in a historical context. Putnam's central concern is ontology - indeed, the very idea of ontology as the division of philosophy concerned with what (ultimately) exists. Reviewing what he deems the disastrous consequences of ontolo...

Looking at the efforts of philosophers from the Enlightenment through the 20th Century, Hilary Putnam traces the ways in which ethical problems arise in a historical context. Putnam's central concern is ontology - indeed, the very idea of ontology as the division of philosophy concerned with what (ultimately) exists. Reviewing what he deems the disastrous consequences of ontology's influence on analytic philosophy - in particular, the contortions it imposes upon debates about the objective of ethical judgements - Putnam proposes abandoning the very idea of ontology. He argues persuasively that the attempt to provide an ontological explanation of the objectivity of either mathematics or ethics is, in fact, an attempt to provide justifications that are extraneous to mathematics and ethics - and is thus deeply misguided.

希拉里·普特南（Hilary Putnam），1926— ，当代美国著名哲学家、逻辑学家。新实用主义的主要代表人物，近三十年来英美哲学界最具影响力的哲学家之一，在哲学界享有极高的声誉。其研究兴趣广泛，在心灵哲学，语言哲学、科学哲学、逻辑学等诸多领域均有重大影响，被誉为“当代惟一具有‘综观全局’能力的哲学家”。普特南曾任教于普林斯顿大学、麻省理工学院及哈佛大学，现为哈佛大学荣誉Cogan学校教授。其代表作有《理性、真理与历史》、《词与生活》、《重建哲学》等。