Hilary P utnam interviewed by N aoko S aito and P aul S tandish

The interview, which took place on the eve of the 2012 A merican presidential election, coincides with the publication of three major works by or about Hilary P utnam. It begins and ends with the topic of science, drawing attention to science's profound importance but also to its contemporary forms of distortion. It explores P utnam's current views on realism, with reference to conceptual relativity and ‘objectivity without objects’. The nature of philosophy and its sometimes‐dishonest relationship to scepticism is considered, especially in relation to the work of S tanley C avell and R ichard R orty. P utnam acknowledges that he has learned much from Wittgenstein, but he laments W ittgenstein's apparent insensitivity to the value of, and spiritual depth in, P lato. He recognises R orty's contribution to the revival of pragmatism, but he roundly criticises the version of it advanced by R orty and by his student, R obert B random. It is classical pragmatism's achievement in overcoming the fact‐value dichotomy that P utnam wishes particularly to emphasise. While acknowledging tensions in the work of D ewey, between the sensitive aesthetician and the social reformer, P utnam stresses D ewey's importance, alongside that of Martin Buber, in shaping his own political and religious views. In the course of the discussion further tensions are considered—between pragmatism and A merican transcendentalism, and between analytic and continental philosophy. The interview closes with reference to politics and to the perilous situation of the humanities today.