part 1:
Introduction
part 2:
Putnam on The Threefold Cord
part 3:
Questions and Answers

Transcript of Friday Forum, February 11: Introduction

Sheri Sable:

My name is Sheri Sable and I am the marketing director here at Harvard Bookstore. I’d like to welcome you all to our first Friday Forum of the season. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with our Friday Forum series. For those of you who aren’t, this is our neighborhood, community, scholarly get-together, once a week, on most Fridays during the school year. [On] the handout that you received on the seat you’ll see a list of Friday Forums throughout February, March, and April and we hope to see you at some of our other events throughout the year.

We are very honored to have with us today, in our first Friday Forum, Professor Hillary Putnam. We will be celebrating today the publication of his new book The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World. Professor Putnam is the Cogan University Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. Professor Putnam holds a BA in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California at Los Angeles. Throughout his long and distinguished career he has been awarded fellowships from institutions such as the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a past president of the American Philosophical Association, as well as of the Philosophy of Science Association and the Association for Symbolic Logic. Professor Putnam is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy. Prior to his appointment at Harvard, he taught at MIT, Princeton University and Northwestern University. Hillary Putnam has also authored many books. At the back of your handout there is a selected bibliography from which you can peruse…and all of these books are available at the Harvard Book Store, by the by.

I’d also like to make one small announcement prior to our beginning, and that is that on the 15th of February we are having an event in the Kennedy Room in the Charles Hotel with Robert Wright and Daniel Dennett and that event is also going to be moderated by Hillary Putnam. If you are interested, flyers like these are available at the front of the store on your way out, in the little wooden box that has all the different flyers.

I’d like to introduce to you also Jeni Chiu, who is our new Academic Marketing Liaison. Jeni will be responsible for setting up our Friday Forums, making sure that everybody is happy and comfortable. She has done all the research for all of the professors and scholars who will be participating in our series.

I’m going to ask Professor Putnam to take the floor, but before I do, I’m gonna leave him with one question -- two questions, actually. Unfortunately, I am not going to be here to hear the answer, but we are taping the event, so, if I don’t hear it any other way, it will be through the tape. Professor Putnam had said that there is a novel he wished he had written called The Objects of Desire, [small laughter] and I want to know why he "wished he had written" it instead of…we think he has got plenty of time still to write it, so … oh… well anyway, that’s a novel that we’re hoping to see one day in his bibliography. And I would also ask if today’s event is, in fact, an "object." Without further ado, I would like to introduce Professor Hillary Putnam.

[applause]

part 1:
Introduction
part 2:
Putnam on The Threefold Cord
part 3:
Questions and Answers

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