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Born
Born in Vancouver BC, Canada -
BA Mathematics, Physics, Moral Sciences
Earned BA in Mathematics and Physics from the University of British Columbia in 1956 and a BA in Moral Sciences Part IIB in 1958. -
MA and PhD
Earned MA and PhD in Moral Sciences from The University of Cambridge -
Publishes "The Emergence of Probability"
This was a major publication, tackling the philosophical idea of probability in scientific endeavor. He regards probability as "autonomous" and having a life of its own regardless of what humans observe. Part of his argument in this regard pertains to signs v evidence. Those who seek evidence neglect probability leading to seeing what they are looking for but perhaps not the big picture, whereas those who observe the signs of experiments are open to there being more than humans can perceive. -
Publishes "The Taming of Chance"
"The Taming of Chance" was perhaps the most acclaimed work. In this book, Hacking tackles historical philosophical ideas as problems of statistics. While the book has many social aspects to it, he does interweave mathematical statistics into the outcome of everything from science and medicine to political turmoil. He uses this to make the argument that society has philosophically gone from human nature to the concept of "norms". -
Balzan Prize
Earned Balzan Prize for Epistemology and Philosophy.
"For his fundamental and pioneering contributions to philosophy and the history of social and natural sciences, for the thematic breadth of his research, for his original epistemological perspective centred on a version of scientific realism and defined in contrast with the dominant paradigm in the philosophy of science of the twentieth century."
https://youtu.be/dFIg0vNKkJc