-
Born
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he earned undergraduate degrees from the University of British Columbia (1956) and the University of Cambridge (1958), where he was a student at Trinity College. Hacking also earned his PhD at Cambridge (1962), under the direction of Casimir Lewy, a former student of Ludwig Wittgenstein.[1] -
Books
The Logic of Statistical Inference (1965)
The Emergence of Probability (1975)
Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy? (1975)
Representing and Intervening, Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1983.
The Taming of Chance (1990)
Scientific Revolutions (1990)
Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory (1995)
Mad Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illnesses (1998) -
Awards
n 2002, Hacking was awarded the first Killam Prize for the Humanities, Canada's most distinguished award for outstanding career achievements. On August 25, 2009, Hacking was named winner of the Holberg International Memorial Prize, a Norwegian award for scholarly work in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law and theology. Hacking was chosen for his work on how statistics and the theory of probability have shaped society. -
Philosophical work
Hacking is known for bringing a historical approach to the philosophy of science. Hacking has been a main proponent of a realism about science called "entity realism." This form of realism encourages a realistic stance towards answers to the scientific unknowns hypothesized by mature sciences, but skepticism towards scientific theories. Hacking has also was directing attention to the experimental and even engineering practices of science, of relative autonomy from theory.