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Thomas Samuel Kuhn July 18, 1922 - June 17, 1996
Thomas Kuhn was an American historian and philosopher of science. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (published 1962) helped inaugurate a revolution, the 1960s historiographic revolution, by providing a new image of science. These scientific revolutions involved paradigm shifts that punctuated periods of stasis or normal science. His contributions marked not only a break with several key positivist doctrines, but also inaugurated a new style that brought it closer to the history of science. -
Ian Hacking 18 February, 1936
A Canadian philosopher specializing in the philosophy of science. He's known for his historical approach and has numerous works which include: The Emergence of Probability (1975) and The Taming of Chance (1990). His research on social constructionism, transient mental illnesses and the looping effect of the human kinds make use of historical materials to shed light on how developments in the social, medical, and behavioral sciences have shaped our contemporary conceptions of identity and agency. -
Bas van Fraassen 05 April, 1941
Bas van Fraassen is a Dutch-American philosopher noted for his contributions to philosophy of science, epistemology, and formal logic. He coined the term "constructive empiricism" in his 1980 book The Scientific Image, in which he argued for agnosticism about the reality of unobservable entities. In his paper "Singular Terms, Truth-value Gaps, and Free Logic." He proposed what is now known as van Fraassen's reflection principle. He is widely credited with rehabilitating scientific anti-realism. -
Daniel Dennett March 28, 1942
Daniel Dennett is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, science, and biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. As vocal atheist and secularist, he is referred to as one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism. Throughout his career he authored a number of books that detailed his theories of consciousness. Two efforts, Consciousness Explained (1992) and Darwins Dangerous Idea (1995).
