Leo Apostel was a Belgian philosopher and professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University.
Background
In his book "Oorsprong" (Origin) from 2000 Apostel gives an introduction of a metaphysics about the beginning of man, life and the universe. This work is part of his project to develop an own scientific metaphysics. The basic for this is the contemporary philosophy of science and the existing sciences and humanities from physics, astrophysics, biology, geology to anthropology.
In this book he first outlines the term metaphysics, then presents an ontology, which results in an own consistent world view.
Education
After the second World War he studied philosophy at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels) in Brussels with philosopher of law and logician Chaïm Perelman.
Career
Apostel was an advocate of interdisciplinary research and the bridging of the gap between exact science and humanities. He got his Master of Arts at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels) in Brussels in October 1948 with the thesis Questions sur l"Introspection. Foreign another year he stayed here working as an assistant of Perelman.
In 1950-1951 Apostel is a CRB fellow at the University of Chicago with Rudolf Carnap and with Carl Gustav Hempel at Yale University.
He promoted at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels) in March 1953 with the dissertation "Louisiana Loi et les Causes". In 1955 he went to Geneva Switzerland to study a work with Jean Piaget at the Centre International d"Epistémologie Génétique.
Those experiences would influence the rest of his life. From 1955 Apostel lectured logic and philosophy of science at the Ghent University and the Université libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels) for three years.
In 1958-1959 he was visiting professor at the Pennsylvania State University, and from 1960 to 1979 a professor at the Ghent University.
Leo Apostel was awarded the Solvay award for human sciences in 1985 and the Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord in 1986. The transdisciplinary research department Center Leo Apostel (CLEA) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel was named after him. About Leo Apostel.