Realism with a Human Face Hilary Putnam Edited by James Conant Harvard University Pree Cambridge, Massachuses, and London, Englandi 0b he en Hae ta eyo Con Cain son Dat Pen shan iy Rn seedy oe Thea Mearns 3. cn 4, deen, hoe Aon” om it ee ‘Re ptt ona all ht it ned in our Bear and {lowe oe gusto thomas he locked roms [halite ook hve writen ey oe oe Lie he guste ebay you wl then ra ‘nin hou ntong ne slong sme dane day Cal and aePreface “The essays that James Conant as slated for this volume represent «central prt of the thinking Ihave been doing since I ew my now ‘welknown (some would say "notorious" distinction between 6%0 Kinds of realism ["metaphysicl” and “internal in presidental «addi to the American Philosophical Association ia 1976. Alubough they do noe in any sense present giving up of the poston Lcalled| “Satenal elim," I have chosen # emphasize a somewhat diferent aspect ofthat postion than the one emphasized in Reston, Truth, and History In Reason, Truth and History was primaily concerned to present 1 conception of truth alternative to both the classical metaphysical eal conception (truth as correspondence to "mind independent objets”) and to relativsvpostvit views. (My eeasons fr treating {clavism and postvism a6 two sides of a sage coin are discussed in Why ls Philosopher," Chapter 7 ofthe presen volume) Accor ing to my conception, to claim of ay statement that itis tue that isha iis toe in ts plac, nits cone, conceptual scheme, i roughly wo claim chat i could be justified were epistemic cond. tions good enough. If we allow oureves the Bion of “ideal” epi temic conditions (a5 one allows oneself the fiction of friiones planes in physis, one ean expres this by saying that a tre statement fone tht could be justified wer epistemic contions ideal. But this has opened me toa misunderstanding which I very much ere, and which Chapter 2 ("A Defense of Internal Realism") ties to set straight. (Many people have thought that my idealization was the same 3s Peirce hat what the igre ofa “fnctionles plane” corresponds (0 {sa situation ("finished since" ia which dhe community would be ina potion to justly every ee statement and to discon evry