David Hawkins (philosopher)

David Hawkins ( born February 28, 1913 in El Paso, Texas; † 24 February 2002 in Boulder, Colorado) was an American philosopher. He dealt with the philosophy of science and pedagogy of mathematics and physics.

Life

David Hawkins, whose father William Ashton Hawkins lawyer and one of the founders of Alamogordo was studied philosophy at Stanford University ( Bachelor's degree in 1934, master's degree in 1936 ) and in 1940 received his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley in probability theory (The casual interpretation of probability ). He then taught at Berkeley. During World War II he was from 1943 official historian at the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos and administrative assistant to Robert Oppenheimer, whom he knew from Berkeley. He should also have chosen the location of the Trinity test, but the test was absent and that soon set out to critically nuclear weapons. He was associate professor of philosophy at George Washington University and from 1947 at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he was a full professor in 1949 and received remained the rest of his career. From 1965 to 1970 he was head of the Elementary Science Advisory Center. From 1980 he was there Philip A. Danielson Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. In 1982 he retired.

1969/70 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was also a visiting professor at Berkeley, the University of North Carolina, Cornell University, Simon Fraser University, the University of Michigan and the University of Rome.

In 1950 he had to testify for Un-American Activities where he admitted having consulted with his wife from 1930 to 1942 the Communist Party before the committee; but he refused to name other members of the party. His professorship at the University of California, he was then able to keep just barely.

Hawkins was a founding member of the Federation of American Scientists. He was married to Frances Pockman since 1937, a recognized educator, with whom he had a daughter. With her ​​1970 he founded the Mountain View Center for Environmental Education at the University of Colorado, were trained in the primary school teacher. The Institute was supported by the Ford Foundation and the University and has a nationwide reputation in USA. A central point was also expressed on behalf of the Institute, was the consideration of the living environment of the child. They published the quarterly magazine Outlook.

In 1949 he developed with Herbert A. Simon, the Hawkins -Simon condition in macroeconomics. In 1981 he was MacArthur Fellow. In 1995 he gave the Oppenheimer Memorial Lecture in Los Alamos. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. From 1971 to 1977 he was at the Smithsonian Council.

Writings

• The Language of Nature: An Essay on the Philosophy of Science. Freeman, San Francisco 1964
• The Informed Vision, Essays on Learning and Human Nature. New York, Agathon 1974
• The science and ethics of equality. Basic Books 1977
• The Roots of Literacy. 2000