Carl Gustav Hempel (* January 8th, 1905 in Oranienburg, Germany † November 9th, 1997 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a philosopher of science and a student of logical positivism. He is mainly associated with the concept of deductive-nomological explanation and with the Raven paradox. Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. ... Princeton is the name of several places in the United States of America: Princeton, Florida Princeton, Illinois Princeton, Indiana Princeton, Iowa Princeton, Kansas Princeton, Kentucky Princeton, Louisiana Princeton, Maine Princeton, Massachusetts Princeton, Minnesota Princeton, Missouri Princeton, New Jersey Princeton, North Carolina Princeton, South Carolina Princeton, Texas Princeton, West Virginia Princeton... State nickname: The Garden State Other U.S. States Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Governor Richard Codey (acting) Official languages None defined Area 22,608 km² (47th)  - Land 19,231 km²  - Water 3,378 km² (14. ... The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy which studies the philosophical foundations, assumptions, and implications of science, including the natural sciences such as physics and biology, and the social sciences, such as psychology and economics. ... Logical positivism (later referred to as logical empiricism) holds that philosophy should aspire to the same sort of rigor as science. ... An explanation is a statement which points to causes, context and consequences of some object (or process, state of affairs etc. ... A black raven The Raven paradox is a paradox proposed by the German logician Carl Gustav Hempel in the 1940s to illustrate a problem where inductive logic violates intuition. ...

Biography

Hempel studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy at the Universitiy of Göttingen, Heidelberg and Berlin. In Göttingen he encountered David Hilbert and was impressed by his attempt to base all of mathematics on solid logical foundations derived from a limited number of axioms (Hilbert's Program). Having moved to Berlin he participated in a congress on scientific philosophy in 1929, where he met Rudolf Carnap. Enthusiastic about Carnap's work, Hempel moved to Vienna and became part of the Vienna Circle. In 1934 he received his doctoral degree from the University of Berlin with a dissertation on probability theory. The same year he fled the increasingly repressive Germany and emigrated to Belgium with the help of Paul Oppenheim, with whom he co-authored the book "Der Typusbegriff im Lichte der neuen Logik" on typology and logics in 1936. In 1937 Hempel emigrated to the US where he accepted a position as Carnap's assistant at the University of Chicago. Subsequently he held positions at New York City College (1939-1948), Yale University (1948-1955), and Princeton University where he stayed until he was given emeritus status in 1964. As an emeritus he spend the years from 1964-1966 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and taught at Pittsburgh until 1985. Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space and change. ... The willingness to question previously held truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements, now known as the Scientific Revolution. ... The term philosophy derives from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom. ... The Georg-August University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, often called the Georgia Augusta) was founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and opened in 1737. ... Map of Germany showing Heidelberg Castle of Heidelberg pictured from the Old Bridge Heidelberg (halfway between Stuttgart and Frankfurt) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ...  Berlin? (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005); down from 4. ... David Hilbert David Hilbert ( January 23, 1862 – February 14, 1943) was a German mathematician born in Wehlau, near Königsberg, Prussia (now Znamensk, near Kaliningrad, Russia) who is recognized as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. ... Hilberts Program was to formalize all existing theories to finite real complete set of axioms, and provide a proof that these axioms were consistent. ... Rudolf Carnap (May 18, 1891 - September 14, 1970) was a German philosopher. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... The Vienna Circle was a group of philosophers and scientists organized in Vienna under Moritz Schlick. ... The University of Chicago is a private co-educational university located in Chicago, Illinois. ... This article is about the institution of higher learning in the United States. ... Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. ... The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים) is one of Israels biggest and most important institutes of higher learning and research. ...

Bibliography

Main Works:

• 1936 Über den Gehalt von Wahrscheinlichkeitsaussagen
• 1936 Der Typusbegriff im Licht der neuen Logik mit Paul Oppenheim
• 1942 The Function of General Laws in History
• 1943 Studies in the Logic of Confirmation
• 1959 The Logic of Functional Analysis
• 1965 Aspects of Scientific Explanation
• 1966 Philosophy of Natural Science,
• 1967 Scientific Explanation

Essays:

• Aspects of Scientific Explanation and Other Essays, 1965, ISBN 0029143403
• Selected Philosophical Essays, 2000, ISBN 0521624754
• The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality, 2001, ISBN 0195121368

This article is in large part a translation from the Article on Carl Gustav Hempel on the German wikipedia site.

External links

• Carl Gustav Hempel at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.iep.utm.edu/h/hempel.htm)