Experience and Prediction

Alan W. Richardson is professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia.Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953), German-American philosopher of science, was born in Hamburg. From 1920 to 1926 he taught at the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, from 1926 to 1933 at the University of Berlin, from 1933 to 1938 at the University of Istanbul, and from 1938 to 1953 at the University of California. His untimely death prevented him from presenting the William James lectures at Harvard in 1953.

"Experience and Prediction reprints the classic treatise by German-American philosopher of science Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953). . . Experience and Prediction breaks down the fundamental conundrums of existence, reduction, projection, construction, the nature of the ego, probability logic, and much more." —Wisconsin Bookwatch "Hans Reichenbach's Experience and Prediction is one of the most important books in twentieth-century philosophy of science. Its author was, along with Rudolf Carnap, one of the two principal ambassadors to North America of the exciting new European philosophical movement known here under the names 'Logical Positivism' and 'Scientific Philosophy.' In 1938, when the book was published, Reichenbach was an exile from his native Germany, teaching in Istanbul, Turkey, and about to emigrate to the United States to take up a prestigious position at UCLA. He wrote Experience and Prediction in English as his calling card to his new American colleagues. More than any other single book, Experience and Prediction set the agenda for the new discipline of the philosophy of science that was to emerge after World War II as, perhaps, the most exciting new area in North American philosophy. Many of the problems still at the focus of discussion were given their classic formulations in this book. Long out of print, Experience and Prediction appears here in a new edition accompanied by a splendid historical introduction by the noted young philosopher and historian of the philosophy of science, Alan Richardson. A jewel of a book may once again be appreciated in its proper setting." —Don A. Howard, University of Notre Dame". . . reprints the classic treatise by German-American philosopher of science Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953). . . Experience and Prediction breaks down the fundamental conundrums of existence, reduction, projection, construction, the nature of the ego, probability logic, and much more." —Midwest Book Review