Carl Gustav Hempel

By Connour.Alex

  • Carl Gustav Hempel

    Carl Gustav Hempel
    Carl Gustav Hemple was born on January 8, 1905, in Berlin Germany. He studied Physics, philosophy and mathematics at Universities of Göttingen and then at the University of Berlin. In Berlin he dove into the Scientific explanation and rationality which began the keystone to his work.

  • Language Truth and Logic

    Language Truth and Logic
    Language Truth and Logic was published in 1936 and authored by A.J. Ayer. The premise of the book was to go over analytic and synthetic distinctions. This is prominent in the scientific era due to it drawing a line of what questions can be answered. These two sentence types established a standard for genuine questions and pseudo questions.

  • Hempel's Important Contribution to the Theory of Science

    Hempel's Important Contribution to the Theory of Science
    Its peak throughout Hempel's work was towards the end of his series of theories and explanations. The way he developed his methods of explanation required only facts and unbiased opinions on the matter. In summary, the theme was that specific events were a result of specific laws in science. Those laws were in universal laws, statistical laws, and explanation laws by means of theories.

  • Thomas S. Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

    Thomas S. Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
    Kuhn's theory that a theory is only successful until another theory supersedes it and proves it wrong. This Theory is just a proving point for all of Hempel's work and supports his conclusions. This doesn't mean that everything Hempel researched is true and some of it has been altered and improved through time.

  • Raven Paradox

    Raven Paradox
    The Raven Paradox is an example of explaining what analytic and synthetic distinctions are and how you can prove a statement. All ravens are black, while this may be true and you are able to find numerous ravens that support your theory, doesn't make that theory complete and true. Hempel's reasoning is looking for the fallibility in that statement by sticking to the laws of science. Watch this short video for a better understanding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_dbh6RbdCM

  • Science V.S. Pseudo Science

    Science V.S. Pseudo Science
    Towards the end of Hempel's career and the life he emphasized that, without standards to separate science from pseudo-science, it would be impossible to distinguish frauds, charlatans, and quacks from the real thing (Hempel 1979, 1983). The whole idea of Hempel's work was to set a standard to determine what was truly a scientist and what was scientific. Carl Hempel died in 1977 but left a major impact on the scientific community and how science has evolved.

  • Refrences

    Fetzer, James, "Carl Hempel", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/hempel/.
    Carneades.org. the Raven Paradox (Carl Hempel and the Paradox of Confermation). March 16t, 2016.