Background
Achinstein, Peter Jacob was born on June 30, 1935 in New York City. Son of Asher and Betty (Comras) Achinstein.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Y33WO5E/?tag=2022091-20
(What is meant by scientific evidence, and how can a defin...)
What is meant by scientific evidence, and how can a definition of this concept be applied in the sciences to determine whether observed facts constitute evidence that a given theory is true? In this book, Peter Achinstein proposes and defends several objective concepts of evidence. He then explores the question of whether a scientific method, such as that represented in the four "Rules for the Study of Natural Philosophy" that Isaac Newton invoked in proving his law of gravity, can be employed in demonstrating how the proposed definitions of evidence are to be applied to real scientific cases. In answering this question, he offers a new interpretation of Newton's controversial rules. Contrary to what many methodologists assume, whether the rules, so interpreted, can be used to determine whether observed phenomena provide evidence for a theory is an empirical question, not an a priori one. Finally, in order to deal with numerous cases in which evidence is insufficient to establish a theory, or where no theory is even available, Achinstein describes and defends three scientific methods proposed by the 19th century theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell, in the course of developing his electrical and molecular theories.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199921857/?tag=2022091-20
(The essays in this volume address three fundamental quest...)
The essays in this volume address three fundamental questions in the philosophy of science: What is required for some fact to be evidence for a scientific hypothesis? What does it mean to say that a scientist or a theory explains a phenomenon? Should scientific theories that postulate "unobservable" entities such as electrons be construed realistically as aiming to correctly describe a world underlying what is directly observable, or should such theories be understood as aiming to correctly describe only the observable world? Distinguished philosopher of science Peter Achinstein provides answers to each of these questions in essays written over a period of more than 40 years. The present volume brings together his important previously published essays, allowing the reader to confront some of the most basic and challenging issues in the philosophy of science, and to consider Achinstein's many influential contributions to the solution of these issues. He presents a theory of evidence that relates this concept to probability and explanation; a theory of explanation that relates this concept to an explaining act as well as to the different ways in which explanations are to be evaluated; and an empirical defense of scientific realism that invokes both the concept of evidence and that of explanation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199735255/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198750625/?tag=2022091-20
Achinstein, Peter Jacob was born on June 30, 1935 in New York City. Son of Asher and Betty (Comras) Achinstein.
AB, Harvard, 1956; AM, Harvard, 1958; Doctor of Philosophy, Harvard, 1961; postgraduate (Knox Traveling fellow), University of Oxford, England, 1959-1960.
Assistant professor University Iowa, Iowa City, 1961-1962. Assistant professor philosophy Johns Hopkins Baltimore, 1962-1964. Associate professor, 1964-1968.
Professor, since 1968. Chairman department philosophy, 1968-1977. Visiting professor Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1965-1966, Stanford (California) University, 1967, City University New York, 1973.
Member advisory panel National Science Foundation, 1968-1970, 79-81. Lady Davis visiting professor Hebrew University, Jerusalem, spring 1976. Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein professor philosophy Yeshiva University, since 2009.
(The essays in this volume address three fundamental quest...)
(What is meant by scientific evidence, and how can a defin...)
(Logical positivism was a controversial and extreme philos...)
(This volume brings together eleven essays by the distingu...)
Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science (chair history and philosophy of science section L 1995). Member Philosophy of Science Association (board governors), International Union History and Philosophy (delegate United States 1967-1973, 79-86), Phi Beta Kappa.
Children: Jonathan, Sharon, Betty, married L. Suzanne Brown, June 16, 2005.
