John W. N. Watkins
John William Nevill Watkins ( born July 31, 1924 in Woking, Surrey, † July 26, 1999 in Salcombe, Devon ) was an English political scientist, philosopher and philosopher of science, as well as a prominent representative of critical rationalism. From 1950 - first as a lecturer, then as a professor since 1966 - until his retirement in 1989 he taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
- 4.1 Books
- 4.2 Papers
Life
Conscientious
1941, at age 17, he completed his formal training at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth from and then served in the British Navy. He went on destroyers, the Soviet convoys and warships that escorted with which Winston Churchill was brought back from Marrakech. In 1944 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), after he had torpedoed a German destroyer off the French coast.
Study
Under the influence of the book The Road to Serfdom (1944 ) by Friedrich August von Hayek, he decided to study at the LSE, where Hayek taught. There he made with award a degree in political science; then he went out with a Henry Ford scholarship to Yale, where he earned an MA in 1950.
Teaching and work
At the LSE learned Watkins know Karl Popper, whose pupil he was soon. In 1958 he moved as a lecturer from the Department of Political Science at the Department of Philosophy at the of 1960 Imre Lakatos worked. Watkins and Lakatos gave out the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, and Watkins was 1972-1975 president of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science. In 1970, he was followed by Karl Popper on the chair.
In the context of direct confrontation between Thomas S. Kuhn and Karl Popper at a symposium on 13 July 1965 in London on the subject of Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge ( criticism and cognitive progress ) Watkins represented in its response to Kuhn's introductory paper the position of Popper's falsificationism against Kuhn's conception of the structure of scientific revolutions ( "paradigm shift" ). The principal difference between the two positions he outlined as follows:
" [ Kuhn holds ] the scientific community for an essentially closed society that is only temporarily shaken by collective nervous breakdowns, but what of the spiritual harmony is soon restored. In contrast, according to Popper's view is to the scientific community to be an open society, and it is also, in fact, to a considerable extent; an open society, therefore, in any theory - even if it is prevalent and successful - no, 'paradigm', to use Kuhn's term, is ever holy. "
Watkins ' in the professional world acclaimed publications devoted to the influence of metaphysics on science, the Methodological individualism and the methods of historical explanation. In 1965 he published the book Hobbes 's System of Ideas ( Hobbes's system of ideas ); in this work he proves that Thomas Hobbes ' political theory follows his philosophical ideas. As Watkins ' most important work applies the 1984 published book Science and Scepticism (Science and skepticism ) - an attempt " to have succeeded where Descartes failed " and to show how science can survive in the face of skepticism. In his book Human Freedom after Darwin ( Human Freedom after Darwin), which was published posthumously in 1999, he turned once more to a problem that had occupied him for a long time.
After his retirement in 1989 Watkins played a leading role in the creation of Lakatos Award, is awarded to outstanding achievements in the field of philosophy of science and at the same time the memory of Watkins ' early deceased colleague Imre Lakatos is honored.
On 26 July 1999 eleven weeks after the completion of the manuscript of Human Freedom after Darwin, Watkins died of a heart attack while sailing with his ship Xanthippe on the Kingsbridge Estuary, South Hams District, Devon.
Family
Since 1952 he was married to Mickey Roe. The couple had one son and three daughters.
Obituaries
- Alan Musgrave: Obituary: Professor John Watkins. In: The Independent, August 5, 1999
- J. Worrall: Obituary. John Watkins (1924-1999) In: British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50 (4 ), pp. 787-789.