11 Facts About Larry Laudan

Larry Laudan was an American philosopher of science and epistemologist.

Larry Laudan strongly criticized the traditions of positivism, realism, and relativism, and he defended a view of science as a privileged and progressive institution against popular challenges.

Larry Laudan earned his PhD in Philosophy at Princeton University, and then taught at University College London and, for many years, at the University of Pittsburgh.

Larry Laudan was the husband of food historian Rachel Laudan.

Against empiricism, which is represented by Karl Popper, and "revolutionism," represented by Thomas Kuhn, Larry Laudan maintained in Progress and Its Problems that science is an evolving process that accumulates more empirically validated evidence while solving conceptual anomalies at the same time.

Larry Laudan is particularly well known for his pessimistic induction argument against the claim that the cumulative success of science shows that science must truly describe reality.

In Beyond Positivism and Relativism, Larry Laudan wrote that "the aim of science is to secure theories with a high problem-solving effectiveness" and that scientific progress is possible when empirical data is diminished.

Larry Laudan has written on risk management and the subject of terrorism.

In 1990, while Chair of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii, Larry Laudan was critical of fellow professor Haunani-Kay Trask, over a debate in the local newspapers regarding her claims about white supremacy and the colonisation of Hawaii.

Larry Laudan "demanded" to a Vice President of the University that Trask be reprimanded for her published comments.

Later on, the Philosophy Department that Larry Laudan chaired issued a public "Statement on Racism in Academe" condemning Trask's remarks.