R. B. Braithwaite

Richard Bevan Braithwaite ( born January 15, 1900 in Banbury, † April 21, 1990 in Cambridge ) was a British philosopher and philosopher of science.

After studying mathematics, physics and philosophy in Somerset Bootham and at Cambridge University, he became in 1924 a Fellow at King's College and Lecturer in Moral Science ( 1928-34 ), Sidgwick Lecturer in Moral Science ( 1934-1953 ) and Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy ( 1953-1967 ). He was President of the Mind Association and president of the Aristotelian Society, the co-founder of the Philosophy of Science Group, which later became The British Society for the Philosophy of Science was its president from 1961 until 1963.

In 1957 he was a member of the British Academy in the year. In 1948 he became a member of the Anglican Church.

Braithwaite combined in his works the logical empiricism with the British empiricism of David Hume. He provided contributions to the philosophical basis of probability and statistics. He was one of the first who propagated the use of game theory to solve the problem of the selection of hypotheses in science, ethics and philosophy of religion. True to Hume, he represented the idea that scientific laws are not necessary, but a collection of correlations ( regularity ) are. After that there is no metaphysical difference between accidental and necessary regularities; Regularitären in science take the form of custom and pragmatic reasons.

Braithwaite saw the logical form as common to all scientific theory in the form of a nichtinterpretierbaren deductive system. With this scheme, he examined the traditional problems of philosophy of science: importance of theoretical concepts, models, interpretation of probability, justification of induction and scientific laws, models, causality and explanation.

He was married to the linguist and philosopher Margaret Masterman.

Writings

  • The Foundations of Mathematics and Logic other essays (1931 ): a collection of IT Ramey's works (ed. Braithwaite )
  • Moral Principles and Inductive Policies ( 1952)
  • Scientific Explanation. A Study in the Function of Theory, Probability, and Law in Science ( 1953)
  • An Empiricist 's View of the Nature of Religious Belief (1955 )
  • Theory of Games as a Tool for the Moral Philosopher (1955 )
  • Philosopher of science
  • Member of the British Academy
  • Briton
  • Born 1900
  • Died in 1990
  • Man
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