-
Birth
Carl Gustav Hempel, or "Peter" to his friends, was born in the town of Oranienburg, Germany, on the 8th day of January in 1905. -
Studies at the University of Berlin
Hempel studied philosophy, mathematics, and physics at the University of Heidelberg before transferring to the Univerity of Berlin to continue studies alongside Hans Reichenbach. During his studies, Hempel began to believe that symbolic logic can solve many problems in philosophy, including the separation being genuine problems and merely apparent ones. Later in his education, Hempel spent a semester in Vienna with a group known as "the Vienna Circle" who advocated logical positivism. -
Moving to New York
Due to increasing tensions and violence in Germany at the time Hempel moved to New York and applied for a teaching position at City College of New York. While there he taught philosophy and spread his ideas among many students. -
Spreading Ideas and Knowledge
Hempel authors three books: “Studies in the Logic of Confirmation,” “The Nature of Mathematical Truth,” and “Geometry and Empirical Science.” These books help to demonstrate his knowledge as well as influence and educate others who may have never heard of him until picking up one of his books. He also leaves City College of New York for a teaching position at Yale and joins Yale's Philosophy Department in 1948. -
What Is Evidence?
Hempel coined the Raven Paradox, Hempel's Raven Paradox illustrates the contradiction between intuition and logic and stems from the question of what counts as evidence. By viewing things that are not ravens and that are not black, the likelihood that all ravens are black increases. The paradox stems from the reasoning that: (i) logically-equivalent claims are interchangeable and (ii) particular instances confirm the corresponding universal generalization.
https://youtu.be/_SKmqh5Eu4Y -
Period: to
Publishings
After publishing “Problems and Changes in the Empiricist Criterion of Meaning" (1950) Hempel publishes “The Concept of Cognitive Significance: A Reconsideration” (1951) which illustrates the need for testability for a sustainable scientific claim.
https://youtu.be/WmpEqZQ60n8 -
Period: to
Princeton
Carl Hempel taught at Princeton and researched induction, contributing to the well-respected nature of the Philosophy department. He taught at Princeton as part of the Philosophy department as Stuart Professor of Philosophy until the required retirement age of 68 in 1973 when he became a Lecturer before taking a break and taught at the University of Pittsburgh as University Professor of Philosophy in 1977 until 1985 when he returned to Princeton to continue research.
https://youtu.be/_SKmqh5Eu4Y -
Period: to
Return to princeton
After a tine at the University of Pittsburgh, he returned to Princeton in 1985 and continued his philosophical work for another decade and over the years that he was at Princeton he guided Princeton's Graduate Program in Philosophy, and over time he gradually transformed it into the Program that would be ranked first in the first Cartter Report. He influenced students to do their own philosophical work and built the foundations for future research.
https://youtu.be/7ipA3c6b-yY -
Citations
“Carl G. Hempel | Department of Philosophy.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, philosophy.princeton.edu/about/past-faculty/carl-g-hempel.Fetzer, James. “Carl Hempel.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 6 Sept. 2017, plato.stanford.edu/entries/hempel/.The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Carl Gustav Hempel.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Gustav-Hempel. -
The End of A Meaningful Life
Carl Gustav Hempel died on November 9th, 1997 in Princeton, NJ at the age of 92 and with a legacy left behind as he influenced many and is most notably known for the Raven Paradox, being a major figure in logical empiricism, and his deductive-nomological model of scientific explanation which put explanations on the same logical footing as predictions and declared both as deductive arguments. After his death many of his unpublished works became available and some were added to his previous work.
