'The volume as a whole shows Putnam at the top of his form - moving easily back and forth between brilliantly original arguments on small points in the philosophy of language, and equally original diagnoses of large-scale cultural trends. The book is analytic philosophy at its best. It makes one realize that Putnam is, among contemporary analytic philosophers, the one who most resembles Russell: not just in intellectual curiosity and willingness to change his mind, but in the breadth of his interests and in the extent of his social and moral concerns.' Richard Rorty, The London Review of Books

• Introduction; 1. Models and reality; 2. Equivalence; 3. Possibility and necessity; 4. Reference and truth; 5. “two dogmas' revisited; 6. There is at least one a priori truth; 7. Analyticity and apriority: beyond Wittgenstein and Quine; 8. Computational psychology and interpretation theory; 9. Reflections on Goodman's Ways of Worldmaking; 10. Convention: a theme in philosophy; 11. Philosophers and human understanding; 12. Why there isn't a ready-made world; 13. Why reason can't be naturalized; 14. Quantum mechanics and the observer; 15. Vaguenes and alternative logic; 16. Beyond historicism; Bibliography; Acknowledgements; Index.