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Birth of Bas van Fraassen
Bas van Fraassen was born on April 5th, 1941 in Goes, Netherlands. -
Moved to Canada with family
Bas van Fraassen moved to Canada from Holland when he was 15 years old -
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Education
Bas van Fraassen attended University of Alberta and completed his education in 1963 then attended University of Pittsburgh and obtained his Ph.D. in 1966. He obtained his degree in Philosophy at University of Alberta before moving onto University of Pittsburgh. His completion of Ph.D. came with a dissertation on the Casual Theory of Time under Adolph Grunbaum. -
Published "The Scientific Image"
The Scientific Image is one of Bas van Frassen's most famous works. It focuses heavily on empiricism and scientific realism. This is important from his stance on scientific realism. He challenges the theories of true descriptions of things are not able to be observed. He suggests we should aim for more adequacy. His argument is solid. He suggests we should open the floor for predictability rather than truth of what we can not see. -
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Professional Activities
Bas van Fraassen has taught at Yale University, University of Toronto, University of Southern California and Princeton University. He is still an editor at Journal of Philosophical Logic and Co-Editor of Journal of Symbolic Logic. -
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Associations
American Philosophical Association, Philosophy of Science Association, Society for Exact Philosophy, Evert Willem Beth Stichting, Association for Symbolic Logic and the International Union for History and Philosophy of Science -
Present
Bas van Fraassen's works challenge and help shape the discussions about observation, the roles of scientific theories, how they can be better. He believes in pragmatics and explanations that don't necessarily need a theory to be true. This both challenges and supports science in a way that shows limitations. -
References
Encyclopedia.com. (2024, March 10). ." encyclopedia of philosophy. . encyclopedia.com. 21 Feb. 2024 . Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/van-fraassen-bas-1941 -
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