Alan Francis Chalmers
Alan Francis Chalmers (* 1939 in Bristol ) is a British university professor of philosophy . At the University of Sydney, he dealt in particular with the historical development of natural sciences and the philosophical foundations of natural sciences. Alan Chalmers studied physics at the University of Bristol , the University of Manchester and the University of London .
He published numerous articles on the philosophy of science , the key messages of which he summarized in two books. His central theme is the search for a philosophical basis for the sciences that can distinguish them from pseudosciences .
- Ways of science. Introduction to the philosophy of science
- Limits of science
In the first book he regards and rejects naive inductivism and falsifiability as insufficient foundations of the natural sciences. In his second book he rejects both Karl Popper's Critical Rationalism and Paul Feyerabend's relativism as suitable candidates for an axiomatization of the sciences, the first because it is too rigid and contradicts the historical development of the sciences, the last because it allows pseudosciences. As an alternative, he suggests defining sciences in terms of their purpose, to provide a unified description of the world, and measuring their success in terms of how science accomplishes that purpose.
Web links
- Literature by and about Alan Francis Chalmers in the catalog of the German National Library
- Homepage of Alan Francis Chalmers
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chalmers, Alan Francis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British philosopher and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bristol |