Patrick Colonel Suppes (; March 17, 1922 – November 17, 2014) was an American

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

who made significant contributions to

philosophy of science 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 ultim ...

, the theory of

measurement Measurement is the quantification of attributes of an object or event, which can be used to compare with other objects or events. In other words, measurement is a process of determining how large or small a physical quantity is as compared ...

, the foundations of

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

decision theory Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and

educational technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

. He was the Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and until January 2010 was the Director of the

Education Program for Gifted Youth The Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) at Stanford University was a loose collection of gifted education programs formerly located within Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies program. EPGY included distance and residential summer courses for ...

also at Stanford.

Early life and career

Suppes was born on March 17, 1922, in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. He grew up as an only child, later with a half brother George who was born in 1943 after Patrick had entered the army. His grandfather, C. E. Suppes, had moved to Oklahoma from Ohio. Suppes' father and grandfather were independent oil men. His mother died when he was a young boy. He was raised by his stepmother, who married his father before he was six years old. His parents did not have much formal education.Cf. Suppes autobiography Suppes began college at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

in 1939, but transferred to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in his second year, citing boredom with intellectual life in Oklahoma as his primary motivation. In his third year, at the insistence of his family, Suppes attended the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...

, majoring in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, before entering the

Army Reserves A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve ...

in 1942. In 1943 he returned to the University of Chicago and graduated with a B.S. in

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

, and was stationed shortly thereafter at the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

to serve during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Suppes was discharged from the

Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

in 1946. In January 1947 he entered

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

as a graduate student in philosophy as a student of

Ernest Nagel Ernest Nagel (November 16, 1901 – September 20, 1985) was an American philosopher of science. Suppes, Patrick (1999)Biographical memoir of Ernest Nagel In '' American National Biograph''y (Vol. 16, pp. 216-218). New York: Oxford University Pr ...

and received a PhD in 1950. In 1952 he went to

, and from 1959 to 1992 he was the director of the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences (IMSSS). He would subsequently become the Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Stanford.

Work

Computer-aided learning

In the 1960s Suppes and

Richard C. Atkinson Richard Chatham Atkinson (born March 19, 1929) is an American professor of psychology and cognitive science and an academic administrator. He is president emeritus of the University of California system, former chancellor of the University of Cali ...

(the future president of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

) conducted experiments in using computers to teach math and reading to school children in the

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

area. Stanford's

and Computer Curriculum Corporation (CCC, now named Pearson Education Technologies) are indirect descendants of those early experiments. At Stanford, Suppes was instrumental in encouraging the development of high-technology companies that were springing up in the field of educational software up into the 1990s, (such as

Bien Logic Bien may refer to: * Bien (newspaper) * Basic Income Earth Network BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was c ...

). One computer used in Suppes and Atkinson's Computer-assisted Instruction (CAI) experiments was the specialized

IBM 1500 The IBM 1500 instructional system was introduced by IBM on March 31, 1966, and its primary purpose was to implement E-learning, Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI). Based around either an IBM 1130 or an IBM 1800 computer, it supported up to 32 stud ...

Instructional System. Seeded by a research grant in 1964 from the U.S. Department of Education to the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences at Stanford University, the IBM 1500 CAI system was initially prototyped at the Brentwood Elementary School (Ravenswood City School District) in

East Palo Alto, California East Palo Alto (abbreviated E.P.A.) is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of East Palo Alto was 30,034. It is situated on the San Francisco Peninsula, roughly halfway between the cities of ...

by Suppes. The students first used the system in 1966.Hunka, Stephen; Buck, George (1996
"The Rise and Fall of CAI at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Education"
. Canadian Journal of Educational Communication, 21(2), 153–170. (also
full journal issue
Suppes' Dial-a-Drill program was a touchtone phone interface for CAI. Ten schools around Manhattan were involved in the program which delivered three lessons per week by telephone. Dial-a-Drill adjusted the routine for students who answered two questions incorrectly. The system went online in March 1969. Touchtone telephones were installed in the homes of children participating in the program. Field workers educated parents on the benefits of the program and collected feedback.

Decision theory

During the 1950s and 1960s Suppes collaborated with Donald Davidson on

, at Stanford. Their initial work followed lines of thinking which had been anticipated in 1926 by

Frank P. Ramsey Frank Plumpton Ramsey (; 22 February 1903 – 19 January 1930) was a British philosopher, mathematician, and economist who made major contributions to all three fields before his death at the age of 26. He was a close friend of Ludwig Wittgenste ...

, and involved experimental testing of their theories, culminating in the 1957 monograph '' Decision Making: An Experimental Approach''. Such commentators as

Kirk Ludwig Kirk Alan Ludwig (born May 11, 1959) is an American philosopher who is Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Indiana University. Education and career Ludwig graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in physics from the University of C ...

trace the origins of Davidson's theory of

radical interpretation Radical interpretation is interpretation of a speaker, including attributing beliefs and desires to them and meanings to their words, from scratch—that is, without relying on translators, dictionaries, or specific prior knowledge of their mental s ...

to his formative work with Suppes.

Awards and honors

* He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1968. * In 1971 he was elected as a Permanent Member of the Institut international de philosophie. * In 1978 he was elected as a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

for his work on mathematical psychology. * On November 13, 1990, President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

awarded Suppes with the President's

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

for work in Behavioral and Social Science. * He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1991. * In 1994 he was inducted as a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

. He is the laureate of the 2003

Lakatos Award The Lakatos Award is given annually for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, widely interpreted. The contribution must be in the form of a monograph, co-authored or single-authored, and published in English during the previo ...

for his contributions to the philosophy of science. * He was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

. * In 2012, he was given the first ever

Software and Information Industry Association The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association dedicated to the entertainment, consumer and business software industries. Established in 1984 as the Software Publishers Association (SPA), the SIIA took its new na ...

Lifetime Achievement Award

Works

* ::Including: Suppes, Patrick (1960), ''Stimulus-sampling theory for a continuum of response'', pp. 348–363. * Suppes, Patrick (1972

960 Year 960 ( CMLX) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Summer – Siege of Chandax: A Byzantine fleet with an expeditionary force (co ...

. ''Axiomatic Set Theory''. Dover. Spanish translation by H. A. Castillo, ''Teoria Axiomatica de Conjuntos''. * Suppes, Patrick (1984). ''Probabilistic Metaphysics'', Blackwell Pub; Reprint edition (October 1986) * Humphreys, P., ed. (1994). ''Patrick Suppes: Scientific Philosopher'', Synthese Library (Springer-Verlag). ** Vol. 1: ''Probability and Probabilistic Causality''. ** Vol. 2: ''Philosophy of Physics, Theory Structure and Measurement, and Action Theory''. * Suppes, Patrick (1999) (1957). ''Introduction to Logic''. Dover. Spanish translation by G. A. Carrasco, ''Introduccion a la logica simbolica''. Chinese translation by Fu-Tseng Liu. * Suppes, Patrick (2002). ''Representation and Invariance of Scientific Structures''. CSLI (distributed by the University of Chicago Press). * Suppes, Patrick; Hill, Shirley (2002) (1964). ''A First Course in Mathematical Logic''. Dover. Spanish translation. * Suppes, Patrick; Luce, R. Duncan; Krantz, David; Tversky, Amos (2007) (1972). ''Foundations of Measurement'', Vols. 1–3. Dover.

References

External links

Suppes's autobiography and complete subject bibliography
– Stanford University
Suppes's papers (pdf), and chronological bibliography
– Stanford University
Suppes on Computer Chronicles TV program
"

Computer Chronicles ''(The) Computer Chronicles'' is an American half-hour television series, which was broadcast from 1983 to 2002 on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television and which documented various issues from the rise of the personal computer fro ...

: Computers In Education (1984): An early look at how computers are being used in formal education. Guests include Professor Patrick Suppes of Stanford University and Glenn Kleiman, author of 'Brave New Schools'. Includes demonstrations of the LOGO and BASIC languages. Guest host is Herb Lechner of SRI International." {{DEFAULTSORT:Suppes, Patrick 1922 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American philosophers Action theorists American logicians American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American philosophy academics Analytic philosophers Aristotelian philosophers Central High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni Columbia University alumni Columbia University people Communication theorists American educational psychologists Epistemologists Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Education Lakatos Award winners Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Metaphysicians National Medal of Science laureates Ontologists Philosophers of education Philosophers of logic Philosophers of psychology Philosophers of science Philosophers of social science Philosophers of technology Set theorists Stanford Graduate School of Education faculty Stanford University Department of Philosophy faculty Tarski lecturers United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II United States Army reservists University of Chicago alumni Writers from Tulsa, Oklahoma Members of the American Philosophical Society