The emotive force of these lines depends upon our recognition and ready acceptance of intentionality, of the relations that are possible between thought and reality. Putnam has given this phenomenon the greatest possible significance: “I see philosophy as a field which has certain central questions, for example, the relation between thought and reality” (Putnam 1975b: xvii). He goes on to “mention some questions about which I have not written, the relation between freedom and responsibility, and the nature of the good life”. This passage was written thirty years ago; since then, Putnam has written on these latter subjects also, showing in each case how answers to such metaphysical and ethical questions depend on answers to intentionality questions. Thus his later work has strengthened rather than diluted the emphasis he placed earlier on the connection between thought and reality, making intentionality issues uniquely central to philosophy.

Analytic philosophy

Putnam never expresses his indebtedness to the context in which he came to philosophy more precisely than when he describes intentional relations as at the very centre of the field of questions defining the subject.