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Birth
Van Fraassen was born on 5 April 1941 in the Nazi occupied Goes, Netherlands and after the war in 1956 moved to Canada with his reunited family ("Van Fraassen, Bas"). -
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Formal Education
He later attended the University of Alberta to earn his B.A of philosophy in 1963 and completed his Ph.D at the University of Pittsburg in 1966 ("Van Fraassen, Bas"). -
The Scientific Image
Van Fraassen's famous book The Scientific Image constructs his idea of "Constructive Empiricism" which opposes "Scientific Realists" ("Van Fraassen, Bas"). The link below is a short video of a van Fraassen interview with his approach to the philosophy of science. He explains that a constructive empiricists who accepts a theory does so though observation, while a realist will accept all aspects of the theory as truth.
https://youtu.be/brAOVfAoimQ?si=1kd1DVhOiBaLf8tp -
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Accolades
In 1986, van Fraassen won the Lakatos Award, and in 2012 won the 1st Hempel Prize of the Association for the Philosophy of Sciences ("Bas Van Fraassen"). Some of the works which contributed to van Fraassen’s success include: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space, Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist View, The Empirical Stance, Scientific Expressions: Paradox of Perspective, The Scientific Image. -
Still Alive!
Bas van Fraassen is still with us today providing philosophical insight to those at San Francisco University and serving as McCosh Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Princeton University. One of his hobbies includes rock climbing, which is not just physically demanding, but also reinforces problem solving and critical thinking! -
Works Cited
“Bas Van Fraassen”. Encyclopedia, Science News and
Research Reviews. Academic-Accelerator.com.
https://academic-accelerator.com/encyclopedia/bas-van-
fraassen. Accessed 29 October 2023. "van Fraassen, Bas (1941–)."Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Encyclopedia.com.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias
-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/van-fraassen-bas-1941.
Accessed 29 October 2023.