000			a
999			_c32652 _d32652
008			231227b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780674013803
082			_a121 _bPUT
100			_aPutnam, Hilary
245			_aCollapse of the fact/value dichotomy and other essays
260			_bHarvard University Press, _c2004 _aCambridge :
300			_aix, 190 p. ; _c21 cm.
365			_b34.00 _cUSD _d86.60
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aIf philosophy has any business in the world, it is the clarification of our thinking and the clearing away of ideas that cloud the mind. In this book, one of the world's pre-eminent philosophers takes issue with an idea that has found an all-too-prominent place in popular culture and philosophical thought: the idea that while factual claims can be rationally established or refuted, claims about value are wholly subjective, not capable of being rationally argued for or against. Although it is on occasion important and useful to distinguish between factual claims and value judgments, the distinction becomes, Hilary Putnam argues, positively harmful when identified with a dichotomy between the objective and the purely "subjective."" "Putnam explores the arguments that led so much of the analytic philosophy of language, metaphysics and epistemology to become openly hostile to the idea that talk of value and human flourishing can be right or wrong, rational or irrational; and by which, following philosophy, social sciences such as economics have fallen victim to the bankrupt metaphysics of logical positivism. Tracing the problem back to Hume's conception of a "matter of fact" as well as to Kant's distinction between "analytic" and "synthetic" judgments, Putnam identifies a path forward in the work of Amartya Sen. Lively, concise, and wise, his book prepares the way for a renewed mutual fruition of philosophy and the social sciences.
650			_aWelfare economics
650			_aFacts
650			_aValues
942			_2ddc _cBK