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Van Fraassen was born in the German-occupied Netherlands on 5 April 1941 and is still currently alive -
He attended the University of Alberta (B.A. (hon.), Philosophy, 1963), and the University of Pittsburgh (M.A. 1964; Ph. D., Philosophy, 1966)
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He wrote his most famous book The Scientific Image. In it he popularizes the term “Constructive Empiricism”. He argued for agnosticism about the reality of unobservable entities. His book the Scientific Image is credited with reawakening the scientific anti-realism. YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFSEMap5AiY https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/constructive-empiricism/ -
In it he attempted to try and explain physical phenomena without assuming that such phenomena are caused by rules or laws. He had 3 goals when writing the book one was to show failure in the philosophical accounts of the law of nature, second was to argue against the laws of nature, and finally to contribute the philosophy of science antithetical to such metaphysical notions. Fraassen, B. (1989-11-02). Laws and Symmetry. : Oxford University Press. https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com -
According to Bas C. van Fraassen, he offers answer to the following two questions in The Empirical Stance: “What Is Empiricism, and What Could It Be?” (Van Fraasseen) He continues to look at traditional empiricism while critiquing metaphisics and, “points the way toward a new relationship between secularism and science within philosophy.” (The Empirical Stance)
Van Fraassen’s Work
“The Empirical Stance”. Yale University Press, 2002. -
In this book he tries to present a different way of looking into science. In it he presents a view of measurement outcome as a representation achieved in a process of mutual stabilization of theory and empirical inquiry. Van Fraassen, B. (2008-08-07). Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective. : Oxford University
Press. Retrieved 6 Jul. 2022, from
https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278220.001.0001/acprof-9780199278220 -
Van Fraassen was awarded the Hempel Lifetime Achievement Award by the Philosophy of Science Association at a conference in San Diego, which ran from Nov. 15 to 17 2012. -
Bas C. van Fraassen is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University and the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University. Closer to Truth had conducted an interview with him