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Carl Gustav Hempel (* January 8th, 1905 in Oranienburg, Germany † November 9th, 1997 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a philosopher of science and a student of logical positivism. He is mainly associated with the concept of deductive-nomological explanation and with the Raven paradox.
Biography
Hempel studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy at the Universitiy of Göttingen, Heidelberg and Berlin. In Göttingen he encountered David Hilbert and was impressed by his attempt to base all of mathematics on solid logical foundations derived from a limited number of axioms (Hilbert's Program). Having moved to Berlin he participated in a congress on scientific philosophy in 1929, where he met Rudolf Carnap. Enthusiastic about Carnap's work, Hempel moved to Vienna and became part of the Vienna Circle. In 1934 he received his doctoral degree from the University of Berlin with a dissertation on probability theory.
The same year he fled the increasingly repressive Germany and emigrated to Belgium with the help of Paul Oppenheim, with whom he co-authored the book "Der Typusbegriff im Lichte der neuen Logik" on typology and logics in 1936. In 1937 Hempel emigrated to the US where he accepted a position as Carnap's assistant at the University of Chicago. Subsequently he held positions at New York City College (1939-1948), Yale University (1948-1955), and Princeton University where he stayed until he was given emeritus status in 1964. As an emeritus he spend the years from 1964-1966 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and taught at Pittsburgh until 1985.
Bibliography
Main Works:
- 1936 Über den Gehalt von Wahrscheinlichkeitsaussagen
- 1936 Der Typusbegriff im Licht der neuen Logik mit Paul Oppenheim
- 1942 The Function of General Laws in History
- 1943 Studies in the Logic of Confirmation
- 1959 The Logic of Functional Analysis
- 1965 Aspects of Scientific Explanation
- 1966 Philosophy of Natural Science,
- 1967 Scientific Explanation
Essays:
- Aspects of Scientific Explanation and Other Essays, 1965, ISBN 0029143403
- Selected Philosophical Essays, 2000, ISBN 0521624754
- The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality, 2001, ISBN 0195121368
This article is in large part a translation from the Article on Carl Gustav Hempel on the German wikipedia site.
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