| Region: | Western philosophy |
| Era: | Contemporary philosophy |
| Peter Achinstein | |
| Birth Date: | 30 June 1935 |
| Birth Place: | New York, United States |
| School Tradition: | Analytic |
| Main Interests: | Philosophy of science, history of science |
| Influences: | Carl G. Hempel |
| Influenced: | Helen Longino |
| Notable Ideas: | Explanatory concept of evidence, illocutionary theory of explanation, semantically vs. non-semantically relevant properties required in the construction of theoretical definitions[1] |
Peter Achinstein (born June 30, 1935) is an American philosopher of science at Johns Hopkins University.
Achinstein is the son of Betty (née Comras) and economist Asher Achinstein.[2] [3] He received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard with a dissertation on Carnap's theory of probability. It was the German philosopher Carl G. Hempel, in a visit to Harvard in 1953–4 (replacing W.V. Quine who was on leave), who motivated him to pursue philosophy of science. Upon getting a Harvard Traveling Fellowship, Achinstein spent a year in Oxford in 1959 working under the guidance of P. F. Strawson. In Oxford he attended seminars and lectures delivered by Gilbert Ryle, A.J. Ayer, and J.L. Austin. Achinstein specializes in philosophy of science with strong interests in the history of science.
Achinstein has taught for many years at Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently Krieger-Eisenhower Professor. In Spring 2009, Achinstein began teaching at Yeshiva University as the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein University Professor of Philosophy and is the founder and director of the Center for History and Philosophy of Science of Yeshiva University, New York. He returned to Johns Hopkins in Spring 2011. He has held Guggenheim, NEH, and NSF fellowships, and has served as a visiting professor at MIT, Stanford, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He is the author of seven influential books in the history and philosophy of science. Among them are Particles and Waves, which shared the prestigious Lakatos Award in 1993. This book is a study of methodological problems arising from three episodes in 19th century physics: the wave-particle debate about light, the development of the kinetic-molecular theory, and the discovery of the electron. In 2001, Achinstein published The Book of Evidence, a philosophical and historical study of various concepts of evidence employed in the sciences. A volume of his important collected essays over the years, Evidence, Explanation, and Realism, was published in the spring of 2010. A special volume honoring him, Philosophy of Science Matters: The Philosophy of Peter Achinstein, was published in 2011. In 2013, Achinstein published Evidence and Method: Scientific Strategies of Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell. The book Speculation: Within and About Science, appeared in 2018. Three of his published papers have been selected for "Philosopher's Annual," the best 10 philosophy papers published that year.
He has three children, Jonathan, Sharon, and Betty. His daughter, Sharon Achinstein, is the Sir William Osler Professor of English at The Johns Hopkins University.
Many of Professor Achinstein's students have gone on in careers as philosophers. Among his best-known students are Alexander Rosenberg, with whom he shared the Lakatos Award, Kent Staley, and Helen Longino.