Mary Brenda Hesse
*October 15, 1924 (Reigate, Sussex, UK)
†October 02, 2016 (Cambridge, UK)
Mary Brenda Hesse was a pioneer in history and philosophy of science, challenging the dominant ideas of her time and building bridges across history of science and philosophy of science, as well as across Anglo-Saxon philosophy of science and of language and French and German historical epistemology, critical theory, and hermeneutics. She is often framed as a post-empiricist in her views on science and a post-wittgenstinian in her views on language, and scholars in the Anglo-Saxon community have found her engagement with Habermas particularly noticeable (sometimes commented on in a somewhat derogatory fashion). She herself expressed an identification with post-modernism. During her scholarly life she touched on several topics which remain relevant today, not least the role of metaphors and models in scientific reasoning, artificial intelligence and reasoning, and the relation between natural and social sciences and religion. Amongst her most significant contributions are the claim that history of science relies on philosophy of science and vice versa, notions such as hesse-net and finitism, and an early engagement with social sciences which developed into social epistemology and sociology of scientific knowledge. Her schematisation of analogical reasoning with scientific models while disputed for its philosophical content remains the standard way of representation in current day philosophy of science.
Hesse’s first interest in scholarly work was in science, evoked when – during the Second World War – she joined a course in electronics. From there she advanced into laboratory work and in 1945 received a Bachelor of Science in Special Mathematics from Imperial College. In 1948 she completed a PhD on electron microscopy from UCL (University College London), and in 1951 she took a lectureship in mathematics at the University of Leeds. However, in the interim period between her PhD and her post at Leeds, Hesse taught at a women’s’ college while she studied for a Master in History and Philosophy of Science which she finished in 1950 under the supervision of Herbert Dingle at UCL. When Dingle retired from his post in 1955, Hesse returned to UCL to become a lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science. Contrary to Hesse’s conviction, several colleagues at UCL saw history and philosophy of science as opposing traditions, and in 1955, she thus applied for a newly created post as a lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science in Cambridge, joining Gert Buchdahl and Michael Hoskin in what was then only a small group within the science tripos, overseen by the faculty of philosophy. Two candidates were short-listed for the position, Mary Hesse and Majorie Green, and although Hesse was never someone to emphasize gender, she has remarked that this was exceptional and likely an expression that the new post was not particularly sought after. Hesse remained in Cambridge – advancing to Reader (1968) and later to Professor (1975) – for the rest of her life, intermitted by visits to several universities abroad, including Yale, Minnesota, Chicago, and Notre Dame. In 1965, Hesse became a member of the newly founded Wolfson College (then ‘University College’) which admitted both men and women. This became an important place for her, and she was an active presence there until shortly before her death. In 1985 Hesse took early retirement from her professorship, and re-verted to student status, studying Landscape history. She eventually published several articles in this field as well, including her final publication on ‘East Fields of Cambridge’ published in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society in 2007.
In her time, Hesse was an important although perhaps somewhat isolated figure – in part because she was an unmarried woman who did not fit into the social schemas of Cambridge life, in part because she had conflicting claims on her time with a strong sense of responsibility towards caring duties for her mother and towards her religious community in the Anglican Church. She was the interlocutor of scholars such as Rorty, Popper, Kuhn, Feyerabend, and Ricoeur, and an early discussant of sociology of scientific knowledge – supervising David Bloor for his PhD and engaging with established sociological scholars such as Mary Douglas. She also took on a number of prestigious roles for the academic community, including acting as vice-president for the British Society for the History of Science (1965-69), as the editor of the British Journal for Philosophy of Science (1965-69), as a fellow of the British Academy (from 1979) and as the first female president of the Philosophy of Science Association (1979-80 – followed by the second women, Nancy Cartwright, only in 2009).
by Helene Scott-Fordsmand
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Primary Sources
Monographs
Hesse, Mary. Science and the Human Imagination: Aspects of the History and Logic of Physical Science. London, SCM Press, 1954.
Hesse, Mary. Forces and Fields: A Study of Action at a Distance in the History of Physics. London, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1961.
Hesse, Mary. Models and Analogies in Science. London, Sheed and Ward, 1963.
[Extended version: Models and Analogies in Science. Notre Dame (IN), Notre Dame University Press, 1966].Hesse, Mary. The Structure of Scientific Inference. London/Berkeley, Macmillan/ University of California Press, 1974.
Hesse, Mary. Revolutions and Reconstructions in the Philosophy of Science. Brighton/Bloomington (IN), The Harvester Press/Indiana University Press, 1980.
Hesse, Mary and Michael A. Arbib. The Construction of Reality. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Selected articles and contributed chapters
Selection is made to show the breadth of Hesse’ work, including the most significant publications. Hesse also published a long list of book reviews which are not included. For a full list of Hesse’s publications, see Matteo Collodel’s Website in honour of Mary Hesse.* [ http://www.collodel.org/hesse/#A ]
Hesse, Mary. “The Calculation of Magnetic Lens Fields by Relaxation Methods”. Proceedings of the Physical Society – Section B 63:6 (June 1950): 386-401. [http://iopscience.iop.org/0370-1301/63/6/302/pdf/0370-1301_63_6_302.pdf]
Hesse, Mary. “Boole’s Philosophy of Logic”. Annals of Science 8:1 (March 1952): 61-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00033795200200052
Hesse, Mary. “Action at a Distance in Classical Physics”. Isis 46:4 (December 1955): 337-353. http://www.jstor.org/stable/227576
Hesse, Mary. “Theories, Dictionaries, and Observation”. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 9 33 (May 1958): 12-28. http://www.jstor.org/stable/686097 [followed by: Hesse, Mary. “A Note on ‘Theories, Dictionaries, and Observation'”. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 9:34 (August 1958): 128-129. http://www.jstor.org/stable/685148 ]
Hesse, Mary. “Gilbert and the Historians (I)”. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 11:41 (May 1960), 1-10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/685815 & Hesse, Mary. “Gilbert and the Historians (II)”. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 11: 42 (August 1960): 130-142. http://www.jstor.org/stable/685585
Hesse, Mary. “On Defining Analogy”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 60 (1959-1960): 79-100. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4544623
Hesse, Mary. “History and Philosophy of Science in the Early Natural Sciences Tripos”. The Cambridge Review 84 (1962): 140-145.
Hesse, Mary. “A New Look at Scientific Explanation”. Review of Metaphysics 17:1 (September 1963): 98-108. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20123987
Hesse, Mary. “Induction and Theory-structure”. Review of Metaphysics 18:1 (September 1964): 109-122. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20124045
Hesse, Mary. “Analogy and Confirmation Theory”, Philosophy of Science 31:4 (October 1964): 319-327. http://www.jstor.org/stable/186262
Hesse, Mary. “Positivism and the Logic of Scientific Theories” in The Legacy of Logical Positivism for the Philosophy of Science, edited by P. Achinstein and S. Barker. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press. 1969, pp. 85-114.
Hesse, Mary. “Hermeticism and Historiography: An Apology for the Internal History of Science” in Historical and Philosophical Perspective of Science, Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. V, R. H. Stuewer (ed.), University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis 1970, pp.134-160. http://www.mcps.umn.edu/assets/pdf/5.6_Hesse.pdf
Hesse, Mary. “Whewell’s Consilience of Inductions and Predictions”. The Monist 55:3 (July 1971): 520-524.
Hesse, Mary. “Probability as the Logic of Science”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 72 (1971-1972): 257-272. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4544827
Hesse, Mary. “In Defence of Objectivity”. Proceedings of the British Academy 58 (1973): 275-292. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2182/58p275.pdf
Hesse, Mary. “Bayesianism and Scientific Inference”. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 5:4 (February 1975): 267-272. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0039-3681(75)90008-4
Hesse, Mary. “Models of Method in the Natural and Social Sciences”. Methodology and Science 8 (1975): 163-178.
Hesse, Mary. “The Ideological and Theological Debate about Science: Introduction and a Statement of the Issues”. Anticipation: Christian social thought in future perspective 25 (January 1979): 4-5 and 8-11.
Hesse, Mary. “Science and Objectivity” in Habermas: Critical debates, edited by D. Held and J. Thompson. Cambridge (MA)/London, The MIT Press/Macmillan. 1982, pp. 98-115 and 292-293.
Hesse, Mary. “Cosmology as Myth”. Concilium 166 (June 1983): 49-54.
Hesse, Mary. “Texts without Types and Lumps without Laws”. New Literary History 17:1 (Autumn 1985): 31-48. http://www.jstor.org/stable/468976
Hesse, Mary. “Keynes and the Method of Analogy”. Topoi 6: 1 (March 1987): 65-74. http://www.springerlink.com/content/m13113h6500327u4/fulltext.pdf
Hesse, Mary. “Tropical talk: The Myth of the Literal”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volumes 51 (1987): 297-311. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4106839
Paper based on Hesse’s contribution to the symposium “Unfamiliar Noises” at the Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, University of Cambridge, 12 July 1987. Richard Rorty was the co-symposiast and Susan Haack the Chair.Hesse, Mary. “Socializing Epistemology” in Scientific Knowledge Socialized: Selected Proceedings of the 5th Joint International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science, edited by I. Hronszky, M. Fehér and B. Dajka. Boston and Dordercht, Kluwer. 1988, pp. 3-26.
Hesse, Mary. “Theories, Family Resemblances and Analogy” in Analogical Reasoning: Perspectives of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, and Philosophy, edited by D. H. Helman. Dordrecth and Boston, Kluwer. 1988, pp. 317-340.
Hesse, Mary. “How to Be Postmodern without Being a Feminist”. The Monist 77 (1993): 445-461.
Hesse, Mary. “Habermas and the Force of Dialectical Argument”. History of European Ideas 21:3 (May 1995): 367-378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0191-6599(94)00260-M
Hesse, Mary. “Is Science the New Religion?” in Science Meets Faith: Theology and Science in Conversation, edited by F. Watts. London, SPCK. 1998, pp. 120-135.
Hesse, Mary. “The East Fields of Cambridge”. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 96 (2007): 143-160.
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Secondary Sources
Ackermann, Robert. “Mary B. Hesse, Models and Analogies in Science”. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 16:62 (1965): 161-163 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1093/bjps/XVI.62.161
Bartha, Paul. “Analogy in the Natural Sciences: Meeting Hesse’s Challenge”. Philosophical Inquiries 3:1 (2015): 47-68. http://www.philinq.it/index.php/philinq/article/view/114/61
French, Steven. “Models and Meaning Change: A Brief Introduction to the Work of Mary Hesse”. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science , online.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/pb-assets/docs/journals/bjps/hesse-intro-1612984433510.pdfHaack, Susan. “Surprising Noises: Rorty and Hesse on Metaphor” .Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 88 (1988): 293-301. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4545085
Hallberg, Margareta. “Mary Brenda Hesse” in The Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers, edited by Stuart Brown. Bristol, Thoemmes Continuum. 2005, pp. 406-408.
Hallberg, Margareta. “Gender and Philosophy of Science: The Case of Mary Hesse”. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43:2 (June 2012): 333-340. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2011.12.028
Hallberg, Margareta. “Revolutions and Reconstructions in the Philosophy of Science: Mary Hesse (1924–2016)”. Journal of General Philosophy of Science 48 (2017): 161–171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-017-9364-1
Jardine, Nicholas. “Mary Brenda Hesse”. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy XVII (2018): 19–28. Posted 27 September 2018. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/987/Memoirs_17-02-_Hesse.pdf
Manson, Richard. “Mary Brenda Hesse” in Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers, edited by Stuart Brown, Diane Collinson, Robert Wilkinson. London, Routledge. 1995, pp. 336-337.
Minogue, Brendan P. “Realism and Intensional Reference”. Philosophy of Science 45:3 (September 1978): 445-455. http://www.jstor.org/stable/187030
Hesse’s resposen: Hesse, Mary. “M. Minogue on Intensional Reference”. Philosophy of Science 47:4 (1980):617-625. https://doi.org/10.1086/288961Nersessian, Nancy J. “The Cognitive Work of Metaphor and Analogy in Scientific Practice”. Philosophical Inquiries 3:1 (2015): 133-156. http://www.philinq.it/index.php/philinq/article/view/118/65
Rentetzi, Maria. “The Metaphorical Conception of Scientific Explanation: Rereading Mary Hesse.” Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift Für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie, 36:2 (2005): 377–91. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25171322
Rorty, Richard. “Hesse and Davidson on Metaphor”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volumes 51 (1987): 283-296. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4106839
Suppe, Frederik The Structure of Scientific Theories, Urbana (IL), University of Illinois Press. 1977 (Second edition), pp. 617-730.
van der Meer, Jitse M. “Introduction”. Philosophical Inquiries 3:1 (2015): 41-46. http://www.philinq.it/index.php/philinq/article/view/113/60
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Online Sources
Website in honour of Mary Hesse, Matteo Collodel: http://www.collodel.org/hesse/#
BJPS overview page with introduction by Stephen French: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/bjps/mary-hesse
Obituary for Mary Hesse in The Times: http://epiphanyphilosophers.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/MaryHesseObituary.pdf
Mary Hesse on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hesse
Mary Hesse in AphEx (Portale italiano di filosofia analitica): https://www.aphex.it/mary-brenda-hesse-2/
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ECC
Scott-Fordsmand, Helene (2024). Analogy in Mary (Brenda) Hesse.
- Media
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Projects
Professor Hesse studentship at Wolfson College https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/news/professor-mary-hesses-legacy-fund-arts-humanities-phd-students
Research project, University of Lisbon lead by Pietro Gori 2022-2023: https://ifilnova.pt/en/research-projects/mary-b-hesse-s-new-epistemology-principles-and-legacy/
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Quotes
“In writing the history of science there will always be present, either implicitly or explicitly, some philosophical view of the nature of science” (Hesse 1961, Forces and Fields, pV).
“There is some truth, for example, in the feminist complaint that even the intellectual concept of ‘open debate’ is still too adversarial, too much devoted to logic chopping, and too careless of eccentric and minority viewpoints.” (Hesse 1993, “How to Be Postmodern without Being a Feminist”, p455).
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