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Birth
Ian Hacking is born in Vancouver, Canada -
The Emergence of Probability
Hacking publishes "The Emergence of Probability", which explores the development of statistical ideas around science, particularly mechanics and physics, from Leibnitz to the mid-20th century. The work is vital to forming Hacking's future core philosophy of empirical realism, because it details how the union of the logic, probability and science reworked the ideas of cause and effect- resulting in a more flexible mathematical framework that made advanced science possible. [1] [2] -
Representing and Intervening
Hacking publishes the formative work of his philosophy of science. "Representing and Intervening" posits a new framework- dubbed experimental realism. This philosophy propounds that our understanding of scientific theories must be grounded in absolutely real and manipulatable objects whose existence can be shown causally through experimentation. Ergo, mathematical/physical abstractions like lines of force have insufficient explanatory behavior because they are not strictly "real". [3] -
The Taming of Chance
Hacking further refines the ideas of his earlier work with the "The Taming of Chance." While far more complex and mathematically rigorous than his prior writings, the book continues Hacking's contribution to the philosophy of science by showing how the study of probability generated a scientific exploration of the idea of deterministic models, with implicitly massive consequences for social sciences. Additionally, Hacking stresses the causal problem of why events occur at a given rate. [4] -
The Social Construction of What?
Hacking publishes his broad commentary about development of scientific theories and their relations to societal and linguistic influences. In "The Social Construction of What?", Hacking elucidates as to the great debate about how to classify the three metaphysical categories: objects, ideas and abstractions/ "elevator words." At the heart of the discussion is the relevance of such classification: "what" matters?, and do such ideas and classifications arise inevitably? [5] -
Ian Hacking Wins the Holberg Prize
Excerpt from Citation:"Ian Hacking is a preeminent philosopher and historian of the sciences. His combination of rigorous philosophical and historical analysis has profoundly altered our understanding of the ways in which key concepts emerge through scientific practices and in specific social and institutional contexts. His work lays bare the normative and social implications of the natural and the social sciences." video [6] [7]
