Adolf Grünbaum
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Adolf Grünbaum (born 1923, in Cologne, Germany) is a philosopher of science and a critic of psychoanalysis and Karl Popper.
He became the first permanent Andrew Mellon Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh in 1960, and indeed the first such Mellon Professor in any of the ten fields that had such a Chair. In that year, he also became the founding Director of that University's Center for Philosophy of Science, serving as Director until 1978.
Currently, at the University of Pittsburgh, besides being the Andrew Mellon Professor of Philosophy of Science, he is Chairman of its Center for Philosophy of Science (since 1978), Research Professor of Psychiatry (since 1979), and Primary Research Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (since 2006).
He has received the "Senior U.S. Scientist Prize" from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany, 1985), the "Fregene Prize" for science from the Italian Parliament (1998) and the "Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal" for outstanding achievement from Yale University (1990). Also, in May 1995, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Konstanz in Germany.
Life
Grünbaum received a B.A. with twofold High Distinction in Philosophy and in Mathematics from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut in 1943. He obtained both his M.S. in physics (1948) and his Ph.D in philosophy (1951) from Yale University.
He was a Selfridge Professor of Philosophy at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, (1956 to 1960) after rising through the ranks there, starting in 1950, becoming a full professor in 1955.
In the fall of 1960, Grünbaum left Lehigh University to join the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh. He and the colleagues he recruited then built world-class Philosophy and History and Philosophy of Science Departments at the University. Several of these colleagues had come from Yale University's Philosophy Department, starting in 1962. During this recruitment period the University of Pittsburgh appointed Nicholas Rescher, Wilfrid Sellars, Richard Gale, Nuel Belnap, Alan Ross Anderson, and Gerald Massey among others.
In 2003, Grünbaum resigned from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, while retaining his lifetime tenured Mellon Chair and all of his other affiliations at that University.
Works
He is the author of nearly 400 articles and book chapters as well as books on space-time and the critique of psychoanalysis, which include:
- Modern Science and Zeno's Paradoxes (first edition, 1967; second edition, 1968)[1]
- Geometry and Chronometry in Philosophical Perspective (1968)[2]
- Philosophical Problems of Space and Time (first edition, 1963; second edition, 1973)[3]
- The Foundations of Psychoanalysis. (1984)[4]
- Validation in the Clinical Theory of Psychoanalysis: A Study in the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis, (1993)[5]
- Festschrift
Two celebratory books ("Festschrift" volumes) dealing with his work have been published to date:
- (1983) Physics, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis: Essays in Honor of Adolf Grünbaum. R.S. Cohen and L. Lauden (eds.). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: D. Reidel Publishing Co.
- (1993) Philosophical Problems of the Internal and External Worlds: Essays on the Philosophy of Adolf Grünbaum. J. Earman, A.I. Janis, G.J. Massey, and N. Rescher (eds.). Pittsburgh, PA/Konstanz, Germany: University of Pittsburgh Press/University of Konstanz Press.
A third Festschrift is forthcoming:
- (2009) Philosophy of Physics and Psychology: Essays in Honor of Adolf Grünbaum. Proceedings of the international conference, "The Adolf Grünbaum Symposium in Honor of the Works of Professor Adolf Grünbaum," Santa Barbara, CA, October 2002. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
Positions
His offices include presidencies of the American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division) and the Philosophy of Science Association (two terms). He was the president of the Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science (IUHPS) in 2004-2005 and then automatically became president of the IUHPS from 2006-2007. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
References
- ^ (1967) “Modern Science and Zeno’s Paradoxes of Motion,” in: R.M. Gale (ed.), The Philosophy of Time. A Collection of Essays. New York: Anchor Doubleday Books, pp. 422–494. (1968) Modern Science and Zeno’s Paradoxes. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
- ^ (1968) Geometry and Chronometry in Philosophical Perspective. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
- ^ (1963) Philosophical Problems of Space and Time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. A British edition was published by Routledge & Kegan Paul, London (1964). (1973) "Philosophical Problems of Space and Time," Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. XII. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: D. Reidel Publishing Co.
- ^ (1984) The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. This book also appears in French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, and Polish translations.
- ^ (1993) Validation in the Clinical Theory of Psychoanalysis, A Study in the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.