-
Van Fraassen was born in Goes, Netherlands
-
Van Fraassen finished his undergraduates in Philosophy at the University of Alberta in 1963. From there he went to the University of Pittsburgh and graduated with a Ph.D. in 1966
-
This was Van Fraassen's first publication. He comprehensively runs the gamut from Aristotle Theory of Duration to issues germane to the Theory of Relativity. (Massey 90)
-
The Scientific Image so far is Van Fraassen’s most notable book as it is widely credited with rehabilitating scientific anti-realism. The book focuses on “Constructive Empiricism”, a term he coined that means science aims to give us theories which are empirically adequate; and acceptance of a theory involves as belief only that it is empirically adequate. (5)
-
Van Fraassen has taught at Yale University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Southern California before moving to Princeton University, where he has been a Professor of Philosophy since 1982.
-
In this book that was published in 1989, Van Fraassen discussed there are no laws in nature, or that we shouldn’t believe there are laws of nature and therefore laws should not be applied to science. He additionally develops the Empiricist view as a construction of models to represent the phenomena. Thus, rejecting the idea of “metaphysical laws can succeed.” (1)
-
Van Fraassen looks at traditional empiricism while critiquing metaphysics in this book and reveals a new point in a way to a establish a relationship between secularism and science within philosophy.” He also offers his opinions on "What is Empiricism and what could it be?" (10)
-
In his latest book Van Fraassen presents an original exploration of how we represent the world, as science is described through theories and the tools and observations used to develop those theories. (1)
