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30-651: Founded by Hugh Henry Brackenridge as the Pittsburgh Academy and chartered in 1787, the School of Arts and Sciences may have originally grown out of a school that was active before the charter was granted, perhaps as early as 1770. Thus the SAS began its life as a preparatory school, presumably in a log cabin , in what is now downtown Pittsburgh , which was then on the frontier of the United States. The school

60-412: A 14th state. He lost a bid for re-election because he opposed popular sentiment in supporting federal controls. At a dinner hosted by Chief Justice Thomas McKean , Brackenridge stated that "the people are fools; if they would let Mr. Morris alone, he would make Pennsylvania a great people, but they will not suffer him to do it." Another legislator at the party, William Findley , published an account of

90-481: A concentrated area of study in addition to their major. Certificates typically require 18-24 credits, are noted the student's transcript upon graduation. Certificates can also be obtained from the University Center for International Studies . Many of the programs offered within the School of Arts and Sciences are considered among the best in the nation. For instance,

120-655: A justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, on which he served until his death. He corresponded with other politically active men such as Alexander Addison , a major figure in the Whiskey Rebellion. In 1815 he completed Modern Chivalry , his rambling satirical novel. Widely considered the first important fictional work about the American frontier and called "to the West what Don Quixote

150-468: A story, about particulars of the past. [...] The philosopher, on the other hand, aims principally at explicit generalizations and at those with universal scope. He is no teller of stories, true or false. His goal is to discover and state what is true at all times and places rather than to impart understanding of what occurred at a particular time and place." More recent work questions whether these methodological and conceptual divisions are in fact barriers to

180-412: Is a discipline in its own right. Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods , and implications of science . The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories , and the ultimate purpose of science. This discipline overlaps with metaphysics/ ontology and epistemology , for example, when it explores

210-579: Is named for his son, the lawyer, judge, and writer Henry Marie Brackenridge (1786–1871). History and philosophy of science The history and philosophy of science ( HPS ) is an academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the history of science . Although many scholars in the field are trained primarily as either historians or as philosophers, there are degree-granting departments of HPS at several prominent universities. Though philosophy of science and history of science are their own disciplines, history and philosophy of science

240-741: The American Whig–Cliosophic Society .) Freneau and Brackenridge collaborated on a satire on American manners that may be the first work of prose fiction written in America, Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca . They also wrote The Rising Glory of America , a prophetic poem of a united nation that would rule the North American continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Brackenridge recited it at

270-572: The School of Engineering and School of Law . Both continued to require the traditional classical studies for a bachelor's degree, but they began to formally separate around the time when the university moved to its new location in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, when it also changed its name to the University of Pittsburgh in 1908. With the formal separation from the school of engineering,

300-717: The United States Magazine in Philadelphia in 1778, where he published poems by his friend Freneau, but its lagging subscriptions convinced him to change his profession. He took a law degree, studying under Samuel Chase in Annapolis, Maryland , and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1780 at age 32. Of Philadelphia he wrote, "I saw no chance for being anything in that city, there were such great men before me." Four months later he struck out for

330-648: The commencement exercises of 1771. After his graduation, Brackenridge remained another year to study divinity. In 1772 he became headmaster of Somerset Academy in Somerset County, Maryland , with Freneau as his assistant. He went back to Princeton for a Master's degree, and then served in George Washington 's army as a chaplain, preaching fiery patriotic sermons to the soldiers of the American Revolutionary War . He started

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360-448: The truth about unobservable things and whether scientific reasoning can be justified at all. In addition to these general questions about science as a whole, philosophers of science consider problems that apply to particular sciences (such as astronomy , biology , chemistry , Earth science , or physics ). Some philosophers of science also use contemporary results in science to reach conclusions about philosophy itself. One origin of

390-470: The 1830s, the school faced severe financial pressure to abandon its traditional liberal education in favor of the state legislature's desire for it to provide more vocational training. The decision to remain committed to liberal education nearly ended the university, but it persevered despite its abandonment by the city and state. Similar pressure to abandon the liberal arts focus of the school occurred again between 1902 and 1908 when industrial development in

420-810: The Department of Philosophy , is considered one of the top five in the United States, and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science , consistently ranked at the top of the field. Other rankings, including those by the National Research Council and U.S. News & World Report , include the following programs among the best in the nation: *National Research Council US News & World Report America's Best Graduate Programs 40°26′39″N 79°57′26″W  /  40.4443°N 79.9572°W  / 40.4443; -79.9572 Hugh Henry Brackenridge Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1748 – June 25, 1816)

450-551: The Pennsylvania state assembly, where he fought for the adoption of the federal Constitution, and obtained state endowments in 1787 for the establishment of the Pittsburgh Academy ( University of Pittsburgh ), modeled on Benjamin Franklin 's Academy of Philadelphia ( University of Pennsylvania ). He also played a role in the little-known Westsylvania dispute, siding with Pennsylvania that the western lands should not become

480-474: The School of Arts and Sciences began to oversee the administration of the University’s College of General Studies , expanding the community of Arts and Sciences learners to include nontraditional students. On September 22, 2011, it was announced that an alumnus of the school's Department of Political Science, William S. Dietrich II , had donated $ 125 million to the university, the largest ever donation to

510-552: The frontier, 300 miles to the west, over the Appalachian Mountains . In 1781 Pittsburgh was a village of 400 inhabitants, most Scots , like himself, Scots-Irish , and Germans . His aim, he wrote, in "offering myself to the place" was "to advance the country and thereby myself." In Pittsburgh he helped establish the first western newspaper, the Pittsburgh Gazette , in 1786. He was elected in 1786 to

540-651: The history department only, Kuhn was offended at the philosophers' rejection because "I sure as hell wanted to be there, and it was my philosophy students who were working with me, not on philosophy but on history, were nevertheless my more important students". This attitude is also reflected in his historicist approach, as outlined in Kuhn's seminal Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962, 2nd ed. 1970), wherein philosophical questions about scientific theories and, especially, theory change are understood in historical terms, employing concepts such as paradigm shift . However, Kuhn

570-473: The region was attracting more students to technical trades. Financial pressure mounted to abandon the traditional liberal arts curriculum and focus on more vocational training, but petitions from students, alumni, faculty and some trustees kept the original mission intact. Out of the school, which by then was often referred to as "the College", came the genesis for some of the university's other schools, such as

600-437: The relationship between science and truth. Philosophy of science focuses on metaphysical, epistemic and semantic aspects of science. Ethical issues such as bioethics and scientific misconduct are often considered ethics or science studies rather than philosophy of science. There is no consensus among philosophers about many of the central problems concerned with the philosophy of science, including whether science can reveal

630-543: The remarks, and the subsequent controversy led to Brackenridge's electoral defeat. Brackenridge also nearly lost his life when he attempted to mediate the Whiskey Rebellion . He ran for the United States Congress , but was soundly defeated by Albert Gallatin . The formation of Allegheny County is largely due to Brackenridge's efforts. In December 1799 Governor Thomas McKean appointed him

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660-409: The school became known as the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Several of the school's departments, like mathematics and chemistry, have an unbroken line of professors from the Pittsburgh Academy. Courses such as astronomy, chemistry, English, mathematics, modern languages, and classics, are essentially descended from the academy and resemble the course listings of the day. In the summer of 2006,

690-477: The school in November 2007 using profits from high-ranking positions with Consol Energy , Conoco , and Fuel Tech, as Bettye had graduated from Pitt's College of General Studies with a BA in 1984. The School of Arts and Sciences graduate programs offer MA, MS, MFA, and PhD programs in 34 concentrations, as well as a wide range of interdisciplinary programs. Certificate programs allow students to complete

720-457: The unified discipline is the historical approach to the discipline of the philosophy of science. This hybrid approach is reflected in the career of Thomas Kuhn . His first permanent appointment, at the University of California, Berkeley , was to a position advertised by the philosophy department, but he also taught courses from the history department. When he was promoted to full professor in

750-478: The university up until that time, and that the university would rename the School of Arts and Sciences to honor his father, Kenneth. Since August 2017, Kathleen H. Blee has served as the school's Bettye J. and Ralph E. Bailey Dean since August 2017. A search committee is currently identifying a successor for Blee's planned return to the faculty in June 2023. The position is named after a couple that donated $ 3 million to

780-668: Was 5, his family emigrated to York County, Pennsylvania , near the Maryland border, then a frontier. At age 15 he was head of a free school in Maryland. At age 19 he entered the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University , where he joined Philip Morin Freneau , James Madison , and others in forming the American Whig Society to counter the conservative Cliosophic, or Tory , Society. (Today these are conjoined as

810-400: Was also critical of attempts fully to unify the methods of history and philosophy of science: "Subversion is not, I think, too strong a term for the likely result of an attempt to make the two fields into one. They differ in a number of their central constitutive characteristics, of which the most general and apparent is their goals. The final product of most historical research is a narrative,

840-794: Was an American writer, lawyer, judge, and justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania . A frontier citizen in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, United States, he founded both the Pittsburgh Academy, now the University of Pittsburgh , and the Pittsburgh Gazette , still operating today as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Brackenridge was born in Campbeltown a small town on the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland. In 1753, when he

870-585: Was established on the principles of teaching the rudiments of the "sacred six" of the Scottish universities, as Brackenridge was himself Scottish. Within a short period, more advanced education in the area was needed, so in 1819 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amended the school's 1787 charter to confer university status. The school took the name the Western University of Pennsylvania. By

900-597: Was to Europe," the third and fourth sections of the book appeared in 1793 and 1797, and a revision in 1805, with a final addition in 1815. Henry Adams called it "a more thoroughly American book than any written before 1833." Brackenridge died June 25, 1816, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania , where he is buried in the Old Graveyard along with John Bannister Gibson , who succeeded him on the state supreme court. The Allegheny County borough of Brackenridge, Pennsylvania ,

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