Experience and Prediction: An Analysis of the Foundations and the Structure of Knowledge - Softcover

Reichenbach, Hans

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0268040559 ISBN 13: 9780268040550

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006

Synopsis

Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953) was a formidable figure in early-twentieth-century philosophy of science. Educated in Germany, he was influential in establishing the so-called Berlin Circle, a companion group to the Vienna Circle founded by his colleague Rudolph Carnap. The movement they founded - usually known as ""logical positivism"" - was a form of epistemology that privileged scientific over metaphysical truths. Reichenbach, like other young philosophers of the exact sciences of his generation, was deeply impressed by the far-reaching changes in physics brought about by Einstein's special and general theories of relativity. Reichenbach responded to scientific advances by doing fundamental work in space-time theories, in quantum mechanics, in statistical mechanics, and in the development of probability theory - making him the most important philosopher of physics in the first generation of logical empiricism. Reichenbach wrote ""Experience and Prediction"" expressly to introduce logical positivism to English speakers. In the two decades following World War II, during the explosion of scientific advances in North America, logical positivism was the reigning theory of the philosophy of science and Reichenbach was at the peak of his career. But, inevitably, support for logical positivism began to wane as it became obvious that the justification of scientific theories could not be entirely resolved by relying on strictly formal, technical processes. ""Experience and Prediction"" is available once again, with a new introduction by Alan Richardson.

About this title

Review:

"Hans Reichenbach's Experience and Prediction is one of the most important books in twentieth-century philosophy of science. Its author was, along with Rudolf Carnap, one of the two principal ambassadors to North America of the exciting new European philosophical movement known here under the names 'Logical Positivism' and 'Scientific Philosophy.' In 1938, when the book was published, Reichenbach was an exile from his native Germany, teaching in Istanbul, Turkey, and about to emigrate to the United States to take up a prestigious position at UCLA. He wrote Experience and Prediction in English as his calling card to his new American colleagues. More than any other single book, Experience and Prediction set the agenda for the new discipline of the philosophy of science that was to emerge after World War II as, perhaps, the most exciting new area in North American philosophy. Many of the problems still at the focus of discussion were given their classic formulations in this book. Long out of print, Experience and Prediction appears here in a new edition accompanied by a splendid historical introduction by the noted young philosopher and historian of the philosophy of science, Alan Richardson. A jewel of a book may once again be appreciated in its proper setting."--Don A. Howard

". . . Reprints the classic treatise by German-American philosopher of science Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953) . . . Experience and Prediction breaks down the fundamental conundrums of existence, reduction, projection, construction, the nature of the ego, probability logic, and much more."--Midwest Book Review--Midwest Book Review

About the Author:

ALAN W. RICHARDSON is associate professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0268040559
• ISBN 13: 9780268040550
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 456