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Early Life
Ian Hacking is a philosopher from Vancouver, British Columbia. He was born on February, 18th 1936 and is still alive to this day. He attended British Columbia and Trinity college. He started his teaching career as an instructor at Princeton University in 1960 then moved to University of Virginia as an assistant professor. Hacking currently lives in Toronto and holds a Chair at the Collège de France. -
Philosophical Work
Some famous works done by Hacking include, The Emergence of Probability (1975), and The Taming of Chance (1990). In The Emergence of Probability presents a philosophical critique of early ideas about probability, induction, and statistics and the growth of this new family of ideas in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Hacking includes an intellectual outline involving the growth of science, economics, and the theology of the period. -
Contribution to Philosophy of Sci.
Hacking is known for bringing a historical approach to the philosophy of science. Hacking has a main point of realism about science called "entity realism." This form of realism shows a realistic base towards the scientific unknown, phenomenas hypothesized by new, mature sciences doubting some scientific theories. Hacking is influential when pointing in the direction to the experimental and engineering practices of science. -
Construction Socially
Hacking published “The Social Construction of What? in 2000. It explores the significance of the idea of social construction, not simply in science but also in other arenas… Hacking’s arguments are important.”—Kenan Malik, The Independent