GRÜNBAUM, ADOLF

GRÜNBAUM, ADOLF (1923– ), U.S. philosopher of science. Grünbaum was born in Cologne, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1938. He received his M.S. in physics (1948) and his Ph.D. in philosophy (1951), both from Yale University. After rising through the ranks to an endowed chair at Lehigh University (1950–1960), he was appointed Andrew Mellon Professor of Philosophy in 1960 at the University of Pittsburgh, where he founded its leading Center for Philosophy of Science, of which he served as chairman. He also had an appointment there as research professor of psychiatry. Grünbaum's thorough knowledge of physical and mathematical problems enabled him to analyze some of the basic philosophical questions that arose in connection with space and time. His more than 375 publications range over the philosophy of physics, the theory of scientific rationality, the critique of Freudian psychoanalysis, and the discrediting of theism. His major books include Philosophical Problems of Space and Time (1973²), The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique (1984), and Philosophy of Science in Action (2 vols., 2005). Grünbaum served as president of the American Philosophical Association, and president (twice) of the Philosophy of Science Association. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism. His prestigious lectureships include the Gifford Lectures in Scotland, the Werner Heisenberg Lecture to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich, and the Leibniz Lectures in Hanover, Germany. He is the recipient of the Fregene Prize for science from the Italian Parliament, all four of whose prior recipients were Nobel laureates in one of the natural sciences. Yale University awarded him the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal "for outstanding achievement." He received the Silver Medal from the venerable Italian University of Parma in recognition of his "prestigious career." His scholarship has also been recognized by the publication of three separate Festschrift (celebratory) volumes: (1) Physics, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis: Essays in Honor of Adolf Grünbaum, ed. R.S. Cohen and L. Laudan (1983, 1992); (2) Philosophical Problems of the Internal and External Worlds: Essays on the Philosophy of Adolf Grünbaum, ed. J. Earman et al. (1993); and (3) Philosophy of Physics and Psychology: Essays in Honor of Adolf Grünbaum, ed. A. Jokic (2005). Most recently, he was elected president (for 2006–7) of the International Union for History and Philosophy of Science, the worldwide umbrella organization of the various national societies in the philosophy of science and of history of science.

[Bracha Rager (2^nd ed.)]