Bas van Fraassen
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Bastiaan Cornelis van Fraassen (born Goes, the Netherlands, 5 April 1941) is a member of the Princeton University Philosophy department, currently entering phased retirement. He previously taught at the Yale University, The University of Southern California (USC), the University of Toronto, and the University of Oklahoma. He coined the term constructive empiricism in his 1980 book The Scientific Image. Van Fraassen earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.
A philosopher of science, Van Fraassen's 1989 book Laws and Symmetry attempted to lay the ground-work for explaining physical phenomena without using the assumption that such phenomena are caused by rules or laws which can be said to cause or govern their behavior. Van Fraassen has also done work on the philosophy of quantum mechanics, philosophical logic, and epistemology.
Paul M. Churchland is a vocal critic of Van Fraassen, who in his essay "The Anti-Realist Epistemology of Bas Van Fraassen's The Scientific Image ", contrasted Van Fraassen's idea of unobservable phenomena with the idea of merely unobserved phenomena, among other theories.
Van Fraassen is also known for his pioneering work in philosophical logic.
He is the laureate of the 1986 Lakatos Award for his contributions to the philosophy of science.
