WORDS AND LIFE

Hilary Putnam has been convinced for some time that the present situation in philosophy calls for revitalization and renewal; in this book he shows us what shape he would like that renewal to take. 'Words and Life' offers a account of the sources of several of the central problems of philosophy, past and present, and of why some of those problems are not going to go away. As the first four part tides in the volume - 'The Return of Aristotle,' 'The Legacy of Logical Positivism,' 'The Inheritance of Pragmatism,' and 'Essays after Wittgenstein' - suggest, many of the essays are concerned with tracing the recent, and the not so recent, history of these problems.