Hans Reichenbach: Logical Empiricist

Logical empiricism - not to be confused with logical positivism (see pp. 40-44) - is a movement which has left an indelible mark on twentieth­ century philosophy; Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953) was one of its found­ ers and one of its most productive advocates. His sudden and untimely death in 1953 halted his work when he was at the height of his intellectual powers; nevertheless, he bequeathed to us a handsome philosophical inheritance. At the present time, twenty-five years later, we can survey our heritage and see to what extent we have been enriched. The present collection of essays constitutes an effort to do just that - to exhibit the scope and unity of Reichenbach's philosophy, and its relevance to current philosophical issues. There is no Nobel Prize in philosophy - the closest analogue is a volume in The Library of Living Philosophers, an honor which, like the Nobel Prize, cannot be awarded posthumously. Among 'scientific philosophers,' Rudolf Carnap, Albert Einstein, Karl Popper, and Bertrand Russell have been so honored. Had Reichenbach lived longer, he would have shared the honor with Carnap, for at the time of his death a volume on Logical Empiricism, treating the works of Carnap and Reichenbach, was in its early stages of preparation. In the volume which emerged, Carnap wrote, "In 1953, when Reichenbach's creative activity was suddenly ended by his premature death, our movement lost one of its most active leaders.

The Philosophy of Hans Reichenbach.- Inference, Practice and Theory.- Relative Frequencies.- The Probabilities of Theories as Frequencies.- Reichenbach, Reference Classes, and Single Case 'Probabilities'.- Reichenbach's Entanglements.- Reichenbach on Convention.- Hans Reichenbach's Relativity of Geometry.- Elective Affinities: Weyl and Reichenbach.- Reichenbach and Conventionalism.- The Geometry of the Rotating Disk in the Special Theory of Relativity.- Two Lectures on the Direction of Time.- What Might Be Right about the Causal Theory of Time.- Concerning a Probabilistic Theory of Causation Adequate for the Causal Theory of Time.- Why Ask, 'Why?'?-An Inquiry Concerning Scientific Explanation.- Hans Reichenbach on the Logic of Quantum Mechanics.- Reichenbach and the Logic of Quantum Mechanics.- Reichenbach and the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.- Causal Anomalies and the Completeness of Quantum Theory.- Metaphysical Implications of the Quantum Theory.- Consistency Proofs for Applied Mathematics.- A Generative Model for Translating from Ordinary Language into Symbolic Notation.- Laws, Modalities and Counterfactuals.- Reichenbach's Theory of Nomological Statements.- Appreciation and Criticism of Reichenbach's Meta-ethics: Achilles' Heel of the System?.- Index of Names.- Analytical Index of Subjects.