Hans Reichenbach

By jewel.medley

  • Birth

    Hans Reichenbach's legacy in scientific philosophy stems from his exposure to the genius of men such as Albert Einstein and to his influence upon such great thinkers as Carl Hempel. He authored a prolific body of theses, articles, and books on the topics of socio-political issues, philosophy, science, physics, and mathematics. Many of these works are still used as sources in academia today. A summary of his works is found here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reichenbach/publications.html.

  • Degree in philosophy received from the University of Erlangen.

  • The Concept of Probability for the Mathematical Representation of Reality published (Doctoral thesis)

    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259709404_Hans_Reichenbach_ed_The_Concept_of_Probability_in_the_Mathematical_Representation_of_Reality

  • Soldier in World War I on the Russian front, in the German army radio troops.

  • Albert Einstein's lectures on the theory of relativity attended in Berlin (1917 through 1920).

  • Platform of the Socialist Student Party (Berlin) authored

    https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-84887-3.pdf

  • The Theory of Relativity and A Priori Knowledge (Relativitätstheorie und Erkenntnis Apriori) written

    https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1119/1.1973443?journalCode=ajp

  • Teacher at Technische Hochschule Stuttgart as Privatdozent

  • Axiomatization of the Theory of Relativity published

    https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.3022688?journalCode=pto

  • Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at University of Berlin (1926 - 1933)

    Through knowledge of his prior accomplishments and future promise, Albert Einstein, Max von Laue, and Max Planck helped Reichenbach to obtain this post. When Hitler took control over Nazi Germany in 1933, all Jews (including Reichenbach) were excluded from such positions of prominence and prestige, and he was immediately dismissed and forced to relocate to another teaching position. Reichenbach was not a practicing Jew, but because he was from a Jewish family, the statute applied to him, also.

  • From Copernicus to Einstein published

    https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.98.2534.85

  • Society for Empirical Philosophy (Gesellschaft für empirische Philosophie) created in Berlin, also known as the "Berlin Circle"

  • Head of the Department of Philosophy at Istanbul University (1933 - 1938)

  • The Theory of Probability Published

    https://philpapers.org/rec/REITTO-3

  • Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in its Philosophy Department

    Reichenbach served as head of the philosophy department for several years, leading the university to the distinction of being one of the most important philosophy departments in the United States university system. Some of his most famous students included Carl Hempel, Wesley Salmon, and Hilary Putnam, all of whom went on to be highly influential in their own respective fields of mathematics, philosophy, and computer science.

  • Philosophic Foundations of Quantum Mechanics published

    https://philpapers.org/rec/REIPFO

  • Elements of Symbolic Logic published

    https://philpapers.org/rec/REIPFO

  • The Rise of Scientific Philosophy published (his most popular book)

    The Rise of Scientific Philosophy is Reichenbach's most popular book, known for its approach to philosophy not as "a collection of systems, but as a study of problems". A new understanding of physics and the atomic world brought about this new philosophy of science and systems in our universe. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520010550/the-rise-of-scientific-philosophy

  • Death

  • The Direction of Time published

    The Direction of Time was published post-mortem, based on a series of Reichenbach's writings. These are fairly dense and experimental or philosophical in nature, containing theories on the nature of time as being non-linear, described through "micro-processes" and "entropy" (Glymour). It is a fantastic example of a true scholar's life's work, ending in the culmination of genius and original ideas on the cutting edge of science.