-
Born
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada -
Graduation
Cambridge University, Doctorate in Moral Sciences, where he defended his thesis on the philosophy of mathematics -
Publishes "The Logic of Statistical Interference"
This book delves into the unexplored links between probabilities and philosophy, and their progressions through history. Hacking was as much a historian as he was a statistician. In this book he states that probabilities and statistics are 2 sides of the same coin, but with much separate purposes and end results. Hacking, Ian, and Jan-Willem Romeijn. Logic of Statistical Inference. Cambridge University Press, 2016. -
Publishes "Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?"
In this book, Hacking goes over historical examples of the importance of language in the realm of philosophy. He argued that science has changed from the last 300 years from a collection of ideas, to a collection of sentences, that the refinement of ideas from an inner truth to an outer law is a natural progression of thought and knowledge.
Hacking, Ian (1975). Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?. Cambridge University Press. -
*Key Event* Publishes "The Taming of Chance"
In this book, Hacking described the shift in the 19th century that toppled down the acceptance of determinism and gave room for chance to be seriously considered. Chance was once considered vulgar by the scientific community because it meant that their assumptions had uncertainty. He believed that individual events in history were not predictable, however retrospect can allow us to predict trends, like in weather. Hacking, Ian. The Taming of Chance. Cambridge University Press, 1990. -
Hacking pens an introduction to Kuhn's 50th Anniversary publication, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"
In an interview regarding Kuhn, Hacking says that we may not experience another scientific revolution again as we have in the past. Most findings will become a confirmation of what is expected, and when those things are found, it will simply turn into an affirmation and stabilization of the newly discovered fact. Hacking shared Kuhn's belief that science had no goal, but was a constant progress. Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago :University of Chicago Press, 1970. -
Hacking talks about Feyerabend and Kuhn
