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

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

who made significant contributions to

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

, 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 to ...

, the foundations of

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

decision theory Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability theory, probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses expected utility and probabilities, probability to model how individuals would behave Rationality, ratio ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

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 and teaching. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech" ...

. He was the Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

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 s ...

also at Stanford.

Early life and career

Suppes was born on March 17, 1922, in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

. He grew up as an only child, later with a half-brother George nearly 20 years his junior 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 when he was almost 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, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

in 1939, but transferred to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

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 university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

, majoring in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

, before entering the Army Reserves in 1942. In 1943 he returned to the University of Chicago and graduated with a B.S. in

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

, and was stationed shortly thereafter at the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

to serve during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Suppes was discharged from the Army Air Force in 1946. In January 1947 he entered

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

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 ...

and received a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

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 (the future president of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

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

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

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). One computer used in Suppes and Atkinson's Computer-assisted Instruction (CAI) experiments was the specialized IBM 1500 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 c ...

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 people, 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 ...

, and involved experimental testing of their theories, culminating in the 1957 monograph '' Decision Making: An Experimental Approach''. Such commentators as Kirk Ludwig 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 (The Academy) 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 other ...

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, NGO, 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 ...

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

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

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 science, behavior ...

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

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1991. * In 1994 he was inducted as a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

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 membe ...

. 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 previou ...

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 (, 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 University in Christiania was establis ...

. * In 2012, he was given the first ever Software and Information Industry Association Lifetime Achievement Award

Works

* ::Including: Suppes, Patrick (1960), ''Stimulus-sampling theory for a continuum of response'', pp. 348–363. * Suppes, Patrick (1972 960. ''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: 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 male essayists American male non-fiction writers American philosophy academics Analytic philosophers Aristotelian philosophers Central High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Communication theorists American educational psychologists American epistemologists 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 American metaphysicians National Medal of Science laureates Ontologists American philosophers of education American philosophers of logic Philosophers of psychology American philosophers of social science American philosophers of technology Set theorists Stanford Graduate School of Education faculty Stanford University Department of Philosophy faculty 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 1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology recipients