Carl Hempel Quotes
Carl Gustav Hempel was a German-American philosopher of science and one of the most influential members of the logical empiricist tradition. After early association with the Berlin Circle and the Vienna Circle, he emigrated to the United States, where he held chairs at Yale and Princeton. The quotes below are attributed to Carl Hempel, organized by topic.
Carl Hempel on Knowledge
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Attributed to Carl Hempel:
“Scientific explanation subsumes the explanandum under general laws.”
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Attributed to Carl Hempel:
“The raven paradox shows the deep difficulty of the concept of confirmation.”
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Attributed to Carl Hempel:
“Logical empiricism gave way to logical empiricism for good reasons.”
Carl Hempel on Truth
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Attributed to Carl Hempel:
“Empirical significance is a matter of degree, not of presence or absence.”
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Attributed to Carl Hempel:
“A scientific law is more than a generalization; it must support counterfactuals.”