Hans Reichenbach
One of the heavyweights of "hard-core" philosophy of science. He was born in Hamburg and studied in many universities in Germany, such as Stuttgart (Technische Hochshule), Berlin, Munich, Goettingen and Erlangen. After teaching at Istanbul for several years, he moved to University of California (Los Angeles) in 1938. On the heyday of logical empiricism, he edited Erkenntnis with Carnap.
He made many important contributions to the philosophy of probability and induction, of quantum mechanics and other fields, but by far the most important is his philosophy of space, time and geometry. Drawing on Riemann, Helmholtz, Poincare, and Einstein, he advocated the coventionalist position, and he was also a powerful advocate of the causal theory of time---that time structure can be derived from causal structure together with conventional elements which he called "coordinative definitions". His view is maintained with some modifications by such philosophers as Gruenbaum, although there appeared many criticisms among younger generations of philosophers of science, such as Friedman or Earman.
See also "Reichenbach" in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
