Podobnosť realizmu Alberta Einsteina a Hilaryho Putnama
Similarity of Realism of Albert Einstein and Hilary Putnam

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine the development of philosophical presuppositions of Albert Einstein’s views on reality, to fi nd out what interpretation framework is suitable to express his understanding of reality, and to compare his views with that of Hilary Putnam. I have decided to make the comparison with Putnam due to the fact that their conceptions seem to be similar. I will attempt to defend the possibility to interpret Einstein’s views using a diff erent conceptual framework than his own. Putnam always held some form of realism, but when he was accepting metaphysical realism, he was rejecting semantic antirealism, and vice versa. When accepting naturalistic realism, he simultaneously held conceptual relativism. Einstein espoused the reality of atoms and fi elds, which means he held some form of metaphysical realism. Since 1908, under the infl uence of Duhem, he held the belief about the underdetermination of scientifi c theories, that enabled him to accept several incompatible theories that were, however, in accordance with the facts. Similarly to Putnam in his stage of naturalistic realism, Einstein is an example of maintaining realism while using conceptual relativism.

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