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The Beginning
Born during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Immigrated to western Canada after the war. During high school, read books on religion, psychology, and philosophy. Devoured post-war Existentialists such as Sartre, Camus. Took on a philosophical worldview shaped by the war. -
Philosopher; "a philosopher's philosopher"
During undergrad became a philosopher. There are two basic camps of those who study what science 'is'. Realists speculate more freely about shape of unobservable, and design mathematical equations that cannot (yet) be tested, like Isaac Newton and other string theorists. The anti-realists (empiricists) understand science as investigating the properties of observable objects via experiments. Empirical theories are constrained by experimental results. -
Education
Earned his B.A. (1963) from the University of Alberta and his M.A. (1964) and Ph.D. (1966, under the direction of Adolf Grünbaum) from the University of Pittsburgh. Has taught at Yale University, the University of Southern California, the University of Toronto and, from 1982 to 2008, at Princeton University, where he is now emeritus.
He teaches courses in the philosophy of science, philosophical logic and the role of models in scientific practice at San Francisco State University. -
Published The Scientific Image
This work changed the debate between scientific realism and empiricism -
the Eighties and a new version of scientific anti-realism
Inventor of "constructive empiricism", see published book The Scientific Image, which rescued empiricism from the dead end of logical positivism. It is a highly influential doctrine within the philosophy of science. When one accepts a theory, one has a belief, and also a commitment. The belief is that the theory is empirically adequate. The commitment is “a commitment to the further confrontation of new phenomena within the framework of that theory...." -
Accomplishments
In 1986, the Lakatos Award for his contributions to the philosophy of science.
In 2012, the Philosophy of Science Association's inaugural Hempel Award for lifetime achievement in philosophy of science.
Among his many students are the philosophers Elisabeth Lloyd at Indiana University, Anja Jauernig at New York University, and Professor of Mathematics Jukka Keranen at UCLA. -
Laws and Symmetry book
He rejects the notion that the aim of science is to produce an account of the physical world that is literally true and instead maintains that its aim is to produce theories that are empirically adequate. He also studied the philosophy of quantum mechanics, philosophical logic, and epistemology. -
A few other published books
The Empirical Stance (2012)
Quantum Mechanics, An Empiricist View (1991)
Laws and Symmetry (1989)
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space (1970) -
Founded Kira Institute
The Kira Institute, a non-profit organization, was founded in 1997 to encourage open inquiry concerning the nature of scientific knowledge and its relation to other perspectives drawn from a wide variety of fields. van Fraassen was a contributing founder of this organization. I did not find any recent activity on this establishment. -
Published Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective
In this work, van Fraassen argued that experimental data is nothing more or less than a representation of an observable fragment of a fundamentally unobservable universe. He argued also that while it is scientifically acceptable to believe that data represents a physical state of an "it", that does not necessarily mean "it" exists. -
Interviews
Where do the Laws of Nature Come From? Bas C. van Fraassen | Closer to the Truth
https://www.closertotruth.com/interviews/3159
https://www.closertotruth.com/contributor/bas-van-fraassen/profile Bas van Fraassen Does God Mix with Science?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rThBDxMgNRk -
His Own Words
Like most philosophers (I think) I began with the ambition to arrive at a coherent view of everything -- some day, within my lifetime -- and I am still cherishing that idea ... -
References
Constructive Empiricism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Retrieved from: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/constructive-empiricism/ "An interview with Bas Van Fraassen, the Man Who Brought Scientific Anti-Realism Back From the Dead." Retrieved from: http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/-why-science-should-stay-clear-of-metaphysics
