Carl Gustav Hempel (born January 8, 1905 in Oranienburg, Germany died November 9, 1997 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a philosopher of science and a major figure in 20th-century logical empiricism. Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies See also [[Analytic philosophy]] and [[Continental philosophy]] The 20th century brought with it upheavals that produced a series of conflicting developments within Philosophy Events 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army Year 1905 ( MCMV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Events 694 - Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims sentencing all Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar See also Princeton Township New Jersey, Borough of Princeton New Jersey Princeton Borough New Jersey Princeton Township New Jersey this Analytic philosophy (sometimes analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of Philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions foundations and implications of Science. Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Hempel's Dilemma is a question first asked (at least on record by the Philosopher Carl Hempel. The deductive-nomological (or D-N) model is a formalized view of scientific explanation in Natural language. The Vienna Circle (in German: der Wiener Kreis) was a group of philosophers who gathered around Moritz Schlick when he Jaegwon Kim (born 1934 in Daegu, Korea (now in South Korea) is a Korean born American Philosopher currently working at Events 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army Year 1905 ( MCMV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Events 694 - Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims sentencing all Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar See also Princeton Township New Jersey, Borough of Princeton New Jersey Princeton Borough New Jersey Princeton Township New Jersey this New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions foundations and implications of Science. Logical positivism (later and more accurately called logical empiricism) is a school of philosophy that combines Empiricism, the idea that observational evidence is He is especially well-known for his articulation of the Deductive-nomological model of scientific explanation, which was considered the "standard model" of scientific explanation during the 1950s and 1960's. The deductive-nomological (or D-N) model is a formalized view of scientific explanation in Natural language. An explanation is a description which may clarify causes context, and Consequences of a certain object and a phenomenon such as a process, a He is also known for the Raven paradox, which highlights the problem of induction. The Raven paradox, also known as Hempel's paradox or Hempel's ravens is a Paradox proposed by the German logician Carl Gustav Hempel The problem of induction is the philosophical question of whether inductive reasoning is valid

Biography

Hempel studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy at the University of Göttingen, Heidelberg and Berlin. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language The University of Göttingen ( German: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) is a University in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2006 over 140000 people live within the city's area Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. In Göttingen he encountered David Hilbert and was impressed by his attempt to base all of mathematics on solid logical foundations derived from a limited number of axioms (Hilbert's Program). David Hilbert ( January 23, 1862 &ndash February 14, 1943) was a German Mathematician, recognized as one of the most Hilbert's program, formulated by German mathematician David Hilbert in the 1920s was to formalize all existing theories to a finite complete set of axioms and provide Having moved to Berlin he participated in a congress on scientific philosophy in 1929, where he met Rudolf Carnap and became involved in the Berlin Group of philosophers that was associated with the Vienna Circle. Rudolf Carnap ( May 18, 1891 &ndash September 14, 1970) was an influential German -born philosopher who was active in The Vienna Circle (in German: der Wiener Kreis) was a group of philosophers who gathered around Moritz Schlick when he In 1934 he received his doctoral degree from the University of Berlin with a dissertation on probability theory. The same year he fled the increasingly repressive Germany and emigrated to Belgium with the help of Paul Oppenheim, with whom he co-authored the book "Der Typusbegriff im Lichte der neuen Logik" on typology and logics in 1936. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those In 1937 Hempel emigrated to the US where he accepted a position as Carnap's assistant at the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago is a Private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Subsequently he held positions at New York's City College of New York (1939-1948), Yale University (1948-1955), and Princeton University where he taught alongside Thomas Kuhn, and stayed until he was given emeritus status in 1964. The City College of The City University of New York (known more commonly as the City College of New York or simply City College, CCNY, or colloquially as Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. Thomas Samuel Kuhn (surname ˈkuːn July 18, 1922  &ndash June 17, 1996) was an American intellectual who wrote extensively As an emeritus he spent the years from 1964-1966 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים الجامعة العبرية في القدس abbreviated HUJI) is He became University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh in 1977 and taught there until 1985. The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a non-sectarian coeducational independent state-related, "public" research University

He never embraced the term "logical positivism" as an accurate description of the Vienna Circle and Berlin Group in which he had participated during the years between the World Wars, preferring to describe those philosophers, and himself, as "logical empiricists. "

Hempel believed that the term "positivism", with its roots in Auguste Comte, invoked a materialist metaphysic that empiricists need not embrace. Auguste Comte (full name Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte; 17 January 1798 – 5 September 1857 was a French thinker who is generally credited for having He regarded Wittgenstein as a philosopher with a genius for stating philosophical insights in striking and memorable language, but believed that Wittgenstein (or at least, the Wittgenstein of the Tractatus) made claims which could only be supported by recourse to metaphysics. To Hempel, metaphysics were anathema, involving claims to know things which were not knowable, that is, advancing hypotheses incapable of tending to be confirmed or disconfirmed by evidence.

In 2005 the City of Oranienburg renamed a street to "Carl-Gustav-Hempel-Straße".

Bibliography

Main Works:

• 1936 Über den Gehalt von Wahrscheinlichkeitsaussagen
• 1936 Der Typusbegriff im Licht der neuen Logik mit Paul Oppenheim
• 1942 The Function of General Laws in History
• 1943 Studies in the Logic of Confirmation
• 1959 The Logic of Functional Analysis
• 1965 Aspects of Scientific Explanation
• 1966 Philosophy of Natural Science,
• 1967 Scientific Explanation

Essays:

• Aspects of Scientific Explanation and Other Essays, 1965, ISBN 0-02-914340-3
• Selected Philosophical Essays, 2000, ISBN 0-521-62475-4
• The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality, 2001, ISBN 0-19-512136-8

This article is in large part a translation from the Article on Carl Gustav Hempel on the German wikipedia site.

See also

• Hempel's Dilemma
• Raven paradox

External links

• Carl Gustav Hempel at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• "Problems and Changes in the Empiricist Criterion of Meaning" by Carl G. Hempel
• Carl G. Hempel obituary by the Princeton University Office of Communications