Putnam, Hilary

"The notion of a thing-in-itself is not just unknowable; it is incoherent."

"Truth is not a mirror; it is an achievement of our conceptual and practical engagement with the world."

"The categories of understanding are not fixed by the structure of the mind; they are shaped by history and culture."

"We are responsible for the concepts we use and the world we thereby create."

"The attempt to eliminate value judgments from science is both impossible and undesirable."

"Our conceptual schemes are not arbitrary; they are constrained by the world we inhabit."

"The problem of skepticism arises from adopting a false criterion of knowledge."

"We should be pragmatists about truth: truth is what would be justified in ideal circumstances."

"The world is not a fixed totality waiting to be discovered; it is continuously revealed through our engagement with it."

"Language is not a veil between us and reality; it is a medium through which we articulate reality."

"The idea that meaning is determinate and context-independent is a philosophical myth."

"We must learn to live with the contingency of our conceptual schemes; there is no view from everywhere."

"The growth of scientific knowledge is not a march toward final truth, but an ever-expanding exploration."

"Concepts are not labels attached to independently existing objects; they are ways of organizing experience."

"The notion of a fully objective perspective is not an ideal to approach but a confusion to overcome."

"We live in a world not of bare facts, but of facts shaped by our values and interests."

"Truth is not something we discover; it is something we construct through rational discourse."

"The boundaries between disciplines are not given by nature; they reflect our current purposes and interests."

"We should embrace the idea that reality is complex, multifaceted, and not reducible to a single description."

"The problem of universals is not solved by appeal to abstract entities, but by understanding how language works."

"Science is successful because it develops concepts that allow us to predict and control phenomena, not because it mirrors reality."

"The notion of intrinsic intentionality is confused; intentionality is always derivative from our practices."

"We are not passive recipients of a pre-structured world; we are active interpreters who shape what we understand."

"Truth is a property of our best justified beliefs, not a correspondence to an unknowable reality."