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for Turkey raised the problem of who was to be his replacement during HEMPELs defense of his
thesis. Wolfgang KÖHLER stepped in to take REICHENBACHs place, as was the case in Olaf
HELMERs defense; psychology and philosophy (and physics) were in the same faculty. Although
HEMPEL was of "Aryan" stock, he manifested so-called Philosemitism, "an offense [in Nazi
Germany] against which his father and other well-wishers had warned him more than once" (pp.
147-148).[18] His wife, Eva AHRENDS, had inherited "Jewish blood" from her father, as had been
the case with his mentor. [Eva died in 1944 shortly after giving birth to their first child, Peter
Andrew. Two years later HEMPEL married Diane PERLOW, who is Jewish.]
Germany in 1934 was "uninhabitable" for Peter and Eva HEMPEL. They went to Brussels, Belgium,
where he collaborated with OPPENHEIM. [REICHENBACH may have provided the link to
OPPENHEIM who was interested in logical empiricism.] The OPPENHEIMS supported the HEMPELS,
or better, "made it possible for them to support themselves" (p. 147).[18]
In 1937 the HEMPELS came to the United States and moved to Chicago where Rudolf CARNAP had
obtained ROCKEFELLER research fellowships for HEMPEL and also for his friend and collaborator,
Olaf HELMER, who also collaborated with OPPENHEIM. In 1939/1940, HEMPEL taught summer and
evening classes at City College, New York. From 1940 to 1948 he taught at Queens College in New
York, first as instructor and then as assistant professor. Then he became associate professor in the
Philosophy Department of Yale University where he remained until 1955 when he accepted
Princeton University's invitation to be Stuart Professor of Philosophy, a position he held until his
mandatory retirement in 1973, after which he continued to teach as a lecturer. He became
University Professor of Philosophy in 1977 in the University of Pittsburgh, retiring again in 1985,
when he returned to Princeton, "his adoptive home," where he continued his philosophical work
for another decade. Among his many honors were ten honorary degrees, including one from
Princeton University. Like OPPENHEIM, HEMPEL "welcomed opportunities for kindness,
generosity, courtesy" (p. 149). HEMPEL died in a nursing home near Princeton on 9 November
1997, at 92 years of age. He is survived by his wife, by his son, and by his daughter, Miranda
Tobyanne HEMPEL, as well as by two granddaughters.
The obituary in the New York Times focused on HEMPELs empirical approach and the central role
it played in philosophy of science in America.18a
The Final Years of Kurt GRELLING
First a brief overview to bring us to the final years:
When Carl Gustav [Peter] HEMPEL went to the United States, Kurt GRELLING left Berlin to come to
Brussels in 1937 and again in 1938 to take his place working with Paul OPPENHEIM. When an
apparent opportunity arose to return to his "beloved fatherland," instead of undertaking
emigration "at random," GRELLING gave it some thought, as he wrote to Otto NEURATH in January
1938. This hesitation might have slowed down the attempts to help him come to the U.S.A.
However, after the Kristallnacht (9/10 November 1938), GRELLING did not set foot on German
soil.
It was planned that the HEMPELs (Peter and his first wife Eva), on arrival in the U.S.A. in 1937,
would help find employment for GRELLING here, later aided by the OPPENHEIMs (Paul and
Gabrielle), who had come to the U.S.A. in 1939, and settled in Princeton, New Jersey. The
OPPENHEIMS and the HEMPELS spearheaded the efforts to rescue GRELLING by securing an
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