Hilary Putnam Is Logic Empirical

Hilary Putnam Is Logic Empirical

Author: Hilary Putnam

Year: 1910

Hilary Putnam argued that logic is empirical, meaning logical truths, traditionally considered absolute and necessary, could be revised based on empirical scientific evidence. He developed this thesis primarily in his 1968 paper, "Is Logic Empirical?" Euclidean geometry: For centuries, Euclidean geometry was believed to be a set of necessary truths about the nature of space. The parallel postulate, for instance, was considered an undeniable truth. Non-Euclidean geometry: The development of modern physics, particularly relativity theory, revealed that physical space is not perfectly Euclidean. The discovery that the shortest distance between two points (a geodesic) can behave differently in curved spacetime forced a revision of long-held beliefs about geometry. Putnam's conclusion: Just as physics showed that geometry was empirical rather than a priori, Putnam argued that empirical physics could also force a revision of the principles of logic