Epistemology, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science: Essays in Honour of Carl G. Hempel on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, January 8th 1985 / Edition 1

by Wilhelm K. Essler, H. Putnam, W. Stegmüller

Overview

Professor C. G. Hempel (known to a host of admirers and friends as 'Peter' Hempel) is one of the most esteemed and best loved philosophers in the If an Empiricist Saint were not somewhat of a Meinongian Impos­ world. sible Object, one might describe Peter Hempel as an Empiricist Saint. In­ deed, he is as admired for his brilliance, intellectual flexibility, and crea­ tivity as he is for his warmth, kindness, and integrity, and does not the presence of so many wonderful qualities in one human being assume the dimensions of an impossibility? But Peter Hempel is not only possible but actual! One of us (Hilary Putnam) remembers vividly the occasion on which he first witnessed Hempel 'in action'. It was 1950, and Quine had begun to attack the analytic/synthetic distinction (a distinction which Carnap and Reichenbach had made a cornerstone, if not the keystone, of Logical Em­ piricist philosophy). Hempel, who is as quick to accept any idea that seems to contain real substance and insight as he is to demolish ideas that are empty or confused, was one of the first leading philosophers outside of Quine's immediate circle to join Quine in his attack. Hempel had come to Los Angeles (where Reichenbach taught) on a visit, and a small group consisting of Reichenbach and a few of his graduate students were gath­ ered together in Reichenbach's home to hear Hempel defend the new posi­ tion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789048184101
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	12/22/2010
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of hardcover 1st ed. 1985
Pages:	484
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

On Inductive Support and Some Recent Tricks.- Inductive Inference in the Limit.- Probability and Laws.- Commensurability, Incommensurability and Cumulativity in Scientific Knowledge.- Social Habits and Enlightened Cooperation: Do Humans Measure Up to Lewis Conventions?.- Theoretical Terms and Bridge Principles: A Critique of Hempel’s (Self-) Criticisms.- On Reduction of Theories.- Reflexive Reflections.- Explaining the Actions of the Explainers.- On Explaining Beliefs.- Explaining the Unpredictable.- The Logician’s Dilemma: Deductive Logic, Inductive Inference and Logical Empiricism.- Explanation in Physical Cosmology: Essay in Honor of C. G. Hempel’s Eightieth Birthday.- Statements and Pictures.- Truth and Best Explanation.- Utility Theory and Preference Logic.- Der erste Wiener Kreis.- Are Synoptic Questions Illegitimate?.- On Determining Dispositions.- Die Logik der Unbestimmtheiten und Paradoxien.- Bemerkungen zur pragmatisch-epistemischen Wende in der Wissenschaftstheoretischen Analyse der Ereigniserklärungen.- Zur Verteidigung einiger Hempelscher Thesen gegen Kritiken Stegmüllers.