Background
Schaffner, Kenneth F. was born on October 30, 1939 in New York City. Son of Frank and Estelle Schaffner.
( Kenneth F. Schaffner compares the practice of biologica...)
Kenneth F. Schaffner compares the practice of biological and medical research and shows how traditional topics in philosophy of science—such as the nature of theories and of explanation—can illuminate the life sciences. While Schaffner pays some attention to the conceptual questions of evolutionary biology, his chief focus is on the examples that immunology, human genetics, neuroscience, and internal medicine provide for examinations of the way scientists develop, examine, test, and apply theories. Although traditional philosophy of science has regarded scientific discovery—the questions of creativity in science—as a subject for psychological rather than philosophical study, Schaffner argues that recent work in cognitive science and artificial intelligence enables researchers to rationally analyze the nature of discovery. As a philosopher of science who holds an M.D., he has examined biomedical work from the inside and uses detailed examples from the entire range of the life sciences to support the semantic approach to scientific theories, addressing whether there are "laws" in the life sciences as there are in the physical sciences. Schaffner's novel use of philosophical tools to deal with scientific research in all of its complexity provides a distinctive angle on basic questions of scientific evaluation and explanation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226735923/?tag=2022091-20
Schaffner, Kenneth F. was born on October 30, 1939 in New York City. Son of Frank and Estelle Schaffner.
Doctor of Philosophy, Columbia University, 1967.
From instructor to associate professor University of Chicago, 1965—1972. From associate professor to professor University of Pittsburgh, university professor of history and philosophy of science, 1990—1992. University professor of medical humanities George Washington University, Washington.
Senior research fellow Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, since 1991. Co-director Center for Medical Ethics University of Pittsburgh, 1986—1992. Editor-in-chief philosophy of science Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, Michigan, 1975—1980.
Chair committee on philosophy and medicine American Philosophical Association, Wilmington, District of Columbia. Section editor for psychiatry Encyclopedia of Bioethics Macmillan Publishers, New York City.
( Kenneth F. Schaffner compares the practice of biologica...)
Member science council National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 2003. Fellow: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry (executive committee 1995—2004). Member: World Health Organization (workgroup on international classification and diagnostic system since 2004), National Institute of Mental Health (data safety monitoring board 2000-2003), World Psychiatric Association, International Society Bipolar Disorders (diagnostic guidlines committee since 2004).
Married Jeanette K. Krauss, July 26, 1969. 1 child Gabrielle.