Gerd Buchdahl (12 August 1914 – 17 May 2001) was a German-English

philosopher of science A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

Life

Buchdahl was born to German-Jewish parents in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

; his younger brother, Hans Adolph Buchdahl was a well-known physicist. Both were transported from Britain to Australia as enemy aliens in 1940 on the ''Dunera''. He became the first lecturer in history and philosophy of science at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. A founding fellow of Darwin College, he became University Reader in 1966 and was the Tarner Lecturer at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in 1973, speaking on ''Science and rational structures''. Buchdahl founded the journal ''Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science''. He died in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

and was survived by his wife, Nancy, and three sons.

Works

The developing

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

were the causal lens through which he viewed and from which he wrote about the consequences on

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epis ...

and the history of

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

. His book ''Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science. The classical origins: Descartes to Kant'' (Oxford: Backwell, 1969) detailed interdependencies of philosophy, on one side, and on the other of practical and theoretical natural sciences. It influenced many scholars in their views about (the history of) science and philosophy. His book ''Kant and the Dynamics of Reason. Essays on the Structure of Kant's Philosophy'' (Oxford: Backwell, 1992) shed light upon Kant's critical

intellectualism Intellectualism is the mental perspective that emphasizes the use, the development, and the exercise of the intellect; and also identifies the life of the mind of the intellectual person. (Definition) In the field of philosophy, the term ''inte ...

in respect to the then contemporary developments in the sciences, especially for the anglophone world.

Literature

* ''Buchdahl, Gerd''. Article in Werner Röder/ Herbert A. Strauss (edit.): ''International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Émigrés 1933–1945'' (''Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933''). Vol. 2,

K. G. Saur Verlag K. G. Saur Verlag is a German publisher that specializes in reference information for libraries. The publishing house, founded by Karl Saur, is owned by Walter de Gruyter and is based in Munich. In 1987, K. G. Saur was acquired by Reed Intern ...

, Munich 1983. * Nick Jardine: ''Obituary. Gerd Buchdahl (1914–2001): Founding Editor''. In: ''Studies in History and Philosophy of Science'' 32, 2001, No. 3, .Online
Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. * Roger S. Woolhouse: ''Gerd Buchdahl: Biographical and Bibliographical''. In: Roger S. Woolhouse (ed.): ''Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Essays in Honour of Gerd Buchdahl''.

Kluwer Wolters Kluwer N.V. () is a Dutch information services company. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands (Global) and Philadelphia, United States (corporate). Wolters Kluwer in its current form was founded in 1987 with a m ...

, Dordrecht 1988, , pp. 1–7. * Ulrich Charpa, 'The Cambridge 'Real Gymnasium' and the 'Freie Schule' London – Historical and Philosophical Remarks on Gerd Buchdahl and Karl R. Popper' ''Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 56'' (2011): 269–287

References

External links

Gerd Buchdahl Collection
at the

Whipple Museum of the History of Science Whipple may refer to: People * Whipple (surname) (including a list of people with the surname) * Whip Jones (1909–2001), American ski industry pioneer, founder, developer and original operator of the Aspen Highlands ski area in Aspen, Colorado * ...

Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchdahl, Gerd Philosophers of science Fellows of Darwin College, Cambridge 1914 births 2001 deaths German emigrants to England Writers from Mainz German male writers Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Prisoners and detainees of the United Kingdom 20th-century German philosophers