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Major Contributions
Ian Hacking, born in 1936, is from Vancouver, British Columbia. Hacking is known for his contributions to areas of philosophy and history of physics, the understanding of the concept of probability, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy and history of psychology and psychiatry. -
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Early Research
Hacking’s early research focused on the concept of probability and statistical inference. In "Logic of Statistical Inference" (1965) Hacking developed the approach that characterizes all his later work. In contrast to much of previous philosophy of science, he went into details and the complexity of probability theory and statistics as it is used in practice, with attention to what practitioners in the field regarded as the real problems. He goes directly at probability and quantum mechanics. -
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Early Research Cont.
"The Emergence of Probability" (1975) Hacking began off an interest in the history of probability. He asked the question: Why was there no probability theory in the West before Pascal. He argued: “We should not ask ‘Why did people fail to study these objects?’ We should ask instead, how did these objects of thought come into being?” "The Taming of Chance" (1990) Hacking describes how probability theory influences free will, crime, suicide, and applied in the fields of sociology. -
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Later Research and Implications
Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory (1995) and Mad Travellers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illness (1998), Hacking continues to show how the dichotomy “real or socially constructed” is inadequate in addressing such problems of change. Even through researching and publishing in two different centuries, Hacking is able to keep up and explain how science and philosophy coexist through time. -
Sources
“About Ian Hacking.” Holbergprisen, holbergprize.org/en/holberg-prize/about-ian-hacking. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
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