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born
Bas Van Fraassen was born in German occupied Netherlands after the war his family emigrated to Edmonton, Canada -
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Education
He earned his B.A. from the University of Alberta and his M.A and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught at Yale and the University of Southern California. He currently teaches courses at San Francisco State University to include philosophy of science, philosophical logic and the role of models in scientific practice. He also is an adult convert to the Roman Catholic Church. -
The Scientific Image is published
Van Fraassen debuted his development of constructive empiricism. The idea states that scientific theories are semantically literal, and they also aim to be empirically adequate. What Van Fraassen is trying to say is that as far as belief is concerned, accepting a scientific theory only involves the belief that the theory is empiricaly adequate. -
KIRA institute
A non profit organization that was partially founded by Van Fraassen to encourage open inquiry in the nature of scientific knowledge and the relationship between other perspectives drawn from different fields. Using virtual workshops the Kira institute brings together scientists with a background in philosophy to discuss problems faced in different fields and find common solutions to them. -
constructive Empiricism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brAOVfAoimQ
Bas Van Fraassen describes his idea of constructive empiricism. The scientist is not like Columbus who discovered the new world. Scientist are more like a construction worker who builds and constructs ideas or research over time to back up their work with truth. -
Does God Mix with Science
Van Fraassen helps bridge the gap between science and theology through his philosophical ideas. He speaks about how the obstacles of believing only science or religion is right must be moved on from. Van Fraassen believing in God as a scientific philosopher and anti realist is very interesting. This also may have helped shape some of his ideas. Especially his ideas regarding constructive Empiricism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-QUO_9LqMM -
Still working to this day
Van Fraassen is still using his ideas of Constructive Empiricism to help mold ideas in the fields of climate modeling, synthetic models in biology, high energy particle physics and cognitive sciences. The ideas he presented back 1980 are still holding strong today and are helping shape scientific community.
