Harvard University Press - Putnam H. Ethics Without Ontology.pdf

ETHICS
without
ONTOLOGY
Hilary Putnam
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
Copyright O 2004 by the President and Fellows To the memory of my mother,
of Harvard College Riva Putnam
AU rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Putnam, Hilary.
Ethics without ontology / Hilary Putnam.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-01310-7 (alk. paper)
1. Ethics. 2. Ontology. I. Title.
2004
1914~22 2003057117
Acknowledgments
Part I of this book was presented as a series of four Hermes
lectures (of the same title: "Ethics without Ontology") at the
University of Perugia, in October 2001. The idea of my giv-
ing them was first raised in May 2000 by Giancarlo
Marchetti, Antonio Pieretti, and Carlo Vinti. I once again
thank them warmly, not only for the opportunity to lecture
on my current interests, but also for introducing me to "the
green heart of Italy," the beautiful province of Umbria, and
for the wonderful hospitality that every member of the De-
partment of Philosophy showed me. I also want to thank
Gemma Corradi-Fiumara for chairing one of my lectures,
and panionship (including the intellectual stimula-
tion I found in reading her fascinating philosophical and
psychoanalytic study The Mind's Affective Life); I am grateful
as well to the student who did so much to make our trip run
smoothly and pleasantly, Marco Bastianelli, to whom Ruth
Anna and I wish a essful career in philosophy.
In the spring of that same year (2001), I was Baruch de
Spinoza Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy