Bas van Fraassen

Birth and Education

Apr 5, 1941

Bas van Fraassen was born on 5 April, 1941 in Goes, Netherlands. Following WWII his family emigrated to Alberta, Canada. He earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966. Since this time he has taught at Yale, Princeton, University of Southern California and the University of Toronto. He is primarily involved in the Philosophy of Science.

The Scientific Image

1980

To date, van Fraassen has written 8 books, mostly dealing with the philosophy of science. His first major breakthrough was the book "The Scientific Image". It was this book which defined the term "Constructive Empiricism", which was to rekindle a portion of the dormant and rejected logical positivist approach.

Constructive Empiricism

1986

For his work in "The Scientific Image" and its development of Constructive Empiricism, van Fraassen was awarded the inaugural Lakatos Award in 1986. This award is for achievement in the philosophy of science exclusively. Constructive Empiricism parted from the logical positivists in that it allowed theories of unobservable events and concepts to be regarded as valid, as long as conclusions were not made about these phenomenon.

Applications of Constructive Empiricism

2019

Due to its openness to include unobservable and difficult-to-prove theories, Constructive Empiricism has been majorly useful in establishing scientific validity in fields such as physics and psychology. This inclusion has built bridges between these amorphous fields and traditional observable sciences, and continues to provide ethical and scientific frameworks for integrating these fields.