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Birth of the Great Reichenbach
Hans Reichenbach was born on September 26, 1891 in Hamburg, Germany. It is here that this great scientist begins his journey, moving throughout the years to Turkey and eventually to the United States to continue his scientific studies. -
Education and Military Service
Hans attended college beginning in 1910 and 1916 in many different locations to include Stuttgart, Berlin, Munich, and Göttingen before being drafted into the German Army. After this short period of service, Reichenbach began his career in radio technology, until transitioning into the field of Physics in 1920. -
Study of Probability
Hans studied and proposed further notions to Immanuel Kant’s ideals on causality. He explains his thesis in The Concept of Probability in the Mathematical Representation of Reality published while still in college in the year 1915. This examination explains that all things that happen are a result of a probability distribution or “strike ratios” for which there is a baseline formula suggesting each event has a direct effect on the probability of the following concurrent event. -
Berlin Group
Reichenbach and a number of colleagues in the Physics world made up a group called the Berlin Group who worked alongside of the Vienna Circle (philosophers and scientists from the natural and social sciences). The Berlin Group supported Reichenbach’s first publication of the journal Erkenntnis in the year 1930. -
To America
Reichenbach moved from Turkey to the United States of America in the year 1938 where he was a teacher at the University of California, Los Angeles. He, his wife and his two children were put under a form of house arrest in 1946 when the United States entered into World War II because of their German heritage. -
Theories and Publications
Hans Reichenbach played a part in many different areas of science and philosophy, producing many different publications throughout the years. A few noteworthy writings are: The Theory of Relativity and A Priori Knowledge (1920), The theory of Probability (1935), Experience and Prediction (1938), Elements of symbolic logic (1947), and The rise of scientific philosophy (1951). -
Publication Beyond the Grave
Hans died on April 9th 1953 of a heart attack however, his work did not cease with him. After his death, two theories out of his final works were finished and published for him: Nomological Statements and Admissible Operations (1954) and The Direction of Time (1956). -