Hans Reichenbach 1891 – 1953
Hans Reichenbach was a German-American philosopher of science and the founder of the Berlin Circle of logical empiricists. Trained in physics and mathematics, he produced foundational work on probability, induction, and the philosophy of space and time, including The Philosophy of Space and Time and The Theory of Probability. After fleeing Nazi Germany he taught in Istanbul and at the University of California, Los Angeles, where his students included Carl Hempel, Wesley Salmon, and Hilary Putnam. The distinction between the context of discovery and the context of justification is owed to him.
Key facts
- Nationality
- German-American
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
-
Attributed to Hans Reichenbach:
“There is no absolute time; time is relative to the frame of reference.”
-
Attributed to Hans Reichenbach:
“Probability is the language of induction.”
-
Attributed to Hans Reichenbach:
“We must distinguish the context of discovery from the context of justification.”
-
Attributed to Hans Reichenbach:
“The aim of philosophy is to clarify the language of science.”
-
Attributed to Hans Reichenbach:
“Causality is a regularity of succession refined by laws.”