The Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy 2011 is being awarded to Hilary Putnam
“for his contribution to the understanding of semantics for theoretical and ‘natural kind’ terms, and of the implications of this semantics for philosophy of language, theory of knowledge, philosophy of science and metaphysics”.
Hilary Putnam was born in Chicago in 1926. Today, he is Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Putnam is a past President of the American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division), the Philosophy of Science Association and the Association for Symbolic Logic.
The Rolf Schock Prizes are triennial and are awarded in the fields of logic and philosophy, mathematics, the visual arts and musical arts. The prize amount is SEK 500,000 per category, making a total of SEK 2 million. The prizes are awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, The Royal Academy of Fine Arts and The Royal Academy of Music. The prize award ceremony will take place in Stockholm on 2 October 2011.
The painter Marlene Dumas has been awarded the prize in the visual arts. The prizes in mathematics and music will be announced on 21 March.