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GRELLING, and later Olaf HELMER, John G. KEMENY, Nicholas RESCHER, Nathan BRODY, and
others. About two dozen publications, including three books, were authored or co-authored by
OPPENHEIM. Paul OPPENHEIMs 1926 book described various divisions of scientific subject matter
and their research methods and laws, and suggested a "natural order" based, for example, on the
level of concreteness/abstraction. His 1928 book in the area of thought [cognitive processes] dealt
with static and dynamic laws of the development or creation of scientific concepts. The 1936 book
that he co-authored with HEMPEL, on the logical concept of "type" in light of the "new logic,"
concerned the theory of classificatory and comparative concepts; illustrations were taken from
psychology and from personality typology (e.g., the work of E. KRETSCHMER). A 1935/1936 article,
written in French with HEMPEL, stressed the importance of the "type" concept. Gestalt concepts
were explicated in light of the new logic in papers co-authored with GRELLING (e.g., 1937/1938,
1938/1939) and with RESCHER (1955/1956).
After 1939, when the OPPENHEIMS came to the U.S.A., all of his publications were in English.
Noteworthy for its influence was the 1948 work written with HEMPEL on scientific explanation as
verification. The authors indicated their indebtedness to discussions with their common friend
GRELLING who, together with his wife, were victims of the Nazi terror. Two papers in 1945
discussed the "degree of confirmation," one paper co-authored with HEMPEL and another with
HELMER. Related reports were co-authored with KEMENY on "degree of factual support" (1952)
and on "systematic powers" (1955).
The themes of his 1928 book were revisited by OPPENHEIM in his writings on a natural order of
scientific disciplines (1959) and on dimensions of knowledge (1957/1968). A paper written with
PUTNAM (1968) advanced the unity of science as a working hypothesis.
A 1966 paper with BRODY discussed the tensions in psychology between behaviourism and
phenomenology. There were also papers investigating theories of biology and physics, e.g.,
quantum theory, such as the paper with BRODY (1969) applying BOHRs principle of
complementarity to the mind-body problem, and the work with LINDENBERG (1974, 1978), the
latter published posthumously, on a generalization of complementarity. Thus for over 50 years,
from his first book in 1926 until his death in 1977, OPPENHEIM was engaged in scholarly thinking
and exposition.
OPPENHEIM, who was born on 17 June 1885 in Frankfurt, died on 22 June 1977 in Princeton. His
wife, who was born on 2 June 1892 in Brussels, died in Princeton on 25 August 1997, at age 105!
According to their son, Felix OPPENHEIM, her mind was clear almost to the end. Claude GRELLING,
who also was born on 2 June (in 1930), still remembers his family's visit to the OPPENHEIMs in
Brussels when he was 6 or 7 years old, and the elegant party Mrs. OPPENHEIM made to celebrate
the birthday of "the twins." Even granted that memory may have added to the magnificence of the
event, the fact that it was recalled sixty years later attests to what this gallant gesture by a
gracious hostess meant to a little boy at a difficult time in his family's life.[17]
Carl Gustav HEMPEL (known as Peter to his friends), a younger member of the Berlin Group, was
born on 8 January 1905 in Oranienburg, Germany, near Berlin. Preparing for what he thought
would be a career as a Gymnasium mathematics teacher, HEMPEL studied mathematics, physics,
and philosophy (as had GRELLING) at the universities of Göttingen, Heidelberg, Vienna, and Berlin.
Just a week before HITLER became Reichskanzler, HEMPEL received his doctorate from the
University of Berlin in 1934. His dissertation on the logical analysis of probability concepts was
done mainly under the supervision of Hans REICHENBACH, whose abrupt dismissal and departure
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