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Birth
Ian MacDougall Hacking was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on February 18th, 1936. -
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Education
Early on, Ian Hacking attended several universities. He received his undergraduate degrees from the University of British Columbia in 1956 (Mathematics and Physics), then went on to receive another undergraduate degree in Moral Sciences at the University of Cambridge in 1958 (Ian Hacking - Balzan Prizewinner Bio-bibliography). -
The Aldermaston March
Ian Hacking participated in the Aldermaston Marches which took place on Easter Sunday during the 1950's and 1960's. In the photo of the event, he is one of the participants holding a sign. The marches were apart of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), and had participants march from Trafalgar Square, London all the way to the Royal Air Force Base at Aldermaston, Berkshire, England. The base was chosen due to it being the headquarters of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). -
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Early Philosophical Works
Although his works continue on today, his most prolific period of thought was between 1965 (after completion of his doctoral) and 1990. Ian Hacking always paid attention to debates, and was prominently influenced by Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, and Paul Feyerabend. Hacking studied Natural sciences up until the 1990's when he shifted more towards human sciences. His work was well known for the injection of history into many debates, including one on the topic of "Entity Realism" -
Hacking's work on Entity Realism
Entity Realism, also known as Referential Realism, is the idea that instead of holding scientific theories as truths, or as close to the truth as possible, we should instead regard them as real only if they are observably real time and time again. While Professor at Stanford University, Ian Hacking pioneered and defended this idea in 1983 along with Nancy Cartwright (“Entity Realism”). -
Awarded the Killam Prize
While a Professor at the University of Toronto, Ian Hacking was awarded the Killam Prize in Humanities for his outstanding career achievements. -
Awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
In 2012, Ian Hacking was awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art -
Awarded the Balzan Prize
For his work in the Philosophy of Science, Ian Hacking was awarded the Balzan Prize for Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind in 2014.
