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Birth
Hans Reichenbach was born September 26, 1891 in Hamburg, Germany. He was one of five children born to Bruno Reichenbach and Selma Menzel. -
Received Doctorate
Hans received his doctorate from the University of Erlangen for his thesis on philosophical aspects of the theory of probability. His thesis was strange due to the fact that it had a philosophical and mathematical aspect to it. He went to several universities to find one that would accept his thesis. He finally got the thesis accepted by 2 people, one person for each part of his thesis. -
Military Service
After completing his doctorate he served for 30 months in the Signal Corps of the German army, which by this time was heavily engaged in fighting on several different fronts during World War I. He was sent to the Russian front where he contracted a severe illness. -
Einstein's Impact
He was sent back to Berlin where by 1917 he was one of only five people who attended Einstein's first course on relativity. The topic intrigued Reichenbach and he launched himself into undertaking research on its philosophical aspects. -
First published work
In the year he took up this position he published his first major text on relativity The Theory of Relativity and a Priori Knowledge which attacked Kant's synthetic a priori theory of space and time, and of physics. -
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More published works
This was followed by papers such as Report on an Axiomatics of Einstein's space-time theory 1921 and The current status of the relativity discussion 1922 his second major book Axiomatics of relativistic space-time theory was published in 1924. This work examined the philosophical meaning of the theory of relativity. Two papers followed: The theory of motion by Newton, Leibniz and Huyghens 1924 and The causal structure of the world and the difference between past and future 1927 -
Appointed to Chair in the Philosophy of Physics
Appointed to the chair in the philosophy of physics at the University of Berlin in 1926 Reichenbach took a very different approach to teaching than that used throughout the German system at that time. He encouraged discussion and made himself available to students who could debate topics in the courses with him. -
Society for empirical philosophy
He founded the Society for empirical philosophy in Berlin in 1928, known as the Berlin Circle. Carl Gustav Hempel, Richard von Mises, David Hilbert and Kurt Grelling all became members of the Berlin Circle -
Erkenntnis Journal
Reichenbach took on another major role in 1930 when, together with Carnap, he took on the editorship of the journal Erkenntnis (Knowledge). During these years in Berlin, Reichenbach published further important works on the problems of space and time associated with the new physics. -
Leaving Germany
When Hitler came to power in 1933 Reichenbach realised immediately that he would be in trouble. Not only did he have Jewish grandparents, but he had a high profile through his radio broadcasts and his views were completely at odds with those of National Socialism. Letters of dismissal, both from his professorship at the University of Berlin and from his position with the state radio, arrived too late to have any effect for, anticipating them, and had left for Turkey before they arrived. -
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University of Istanbul
He became head of the Department of Philosophy at the University at Istanbul and served in that role from 1933 to 1938. In many ways Reichenbach was isolated in his new position, certainly the contrast with Berlin where he had been the centre of a flourishing school must have been striking. However he was very active in giving the Department of Philosophy in Istanbul a much broader outlook, introducing interdisciplinary seminars and lecture courses on scientific topics. -
Emigrating to the United States
Having signed a five year contract for his Turkish position, he emigrated to the United States at its termination in 1938. There he worked as a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. In the year he arrived in the United States he published with the University of Chicago Press his book Experience and prediction: an analysis of the foundations and the structure of knowledge. Of course this book had been written during his years in Istanbul. -
Philisophic foundations of Quantum Mechanics
This book was one of Hans first major works. The book explains how physics explains the direct analysis of the physical world, while philosophy analyzes knowledge about the physical world. This work combines both disciplines for a philosophical interpretation of quantum physics and an interpretation free from the imprecision of metaphysics, offering a view of the atomic world and its quantum mechanical results as concrete as the visible everyday world. -
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Most successful published work
Among other works, published after he emigrated, are Elements of Symbolic Logic (1947) and The Rise of Scientific Philosophy (1951). Both are popular texts, the second being the most successful book he wrote in terms of sales. -
Death
Hans Reichenbach died of an unexpected heart attack on April 9, 1953. -
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After Death
Reichenbach was working on two books at the time of his death: Nomological statements and admissible operations (1954), and The direction of time (1956). These were published posthumously thanks to the efforts of his wife, Dr Maria Reichenbach. In this fascinating study of time, Reichenbach distinguishes between the order of time and the direction of time. -
Major Works
Feigl, H. (1944). Philosophic foundations of quantum mechanics. University of California Press. Reichenbach, H. (1947). Elements of symbolic logic. Free Pr. u.a. Reichenbach, H. (1951). The rise of Scientific Philosophy.