Putnam on Morally Significant Action — Quote of the Day

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Writes the American philosopher Hilary Putnam,

I am still a religious person, and I am still a naturalistic philosopher ... A naturalistic philosopher, but not a reductionist. 

Physics indeed describes the properties of matter in motion, but reductive naturalists forget that the world has many levels of form, including the level of morally significant human action, and the idea that all of these can be reduced to the level of physics I believe to be a fantasy.

And, like the classic pragmatists, I do not see reality as morally indifferent: reality, as Dewey saw, makes demands on us. Values may be created by human beings and human cultures, but I see them as made in response to demands that we do not create.

It is reality that determines whether our responses are adequate or inadequate. Similarly, my friend Gordon Kaufman may be right in saying that “the available God” is a human construct, but I am sure he would agree that we construct our images of God in response to demands that we do not create, and that it is not up to us whether our responses are adequate or inadequate.

Putnam, H. (2008), Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life : Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas, Wittgenstein, Bloomingtion, USA, Indiana University Press, p. 5f.

See also Moral Objectivity.