FROM MY PHOTO ALBUM

In Chicago (in front of Tribune Tower), 1971 (age 28)

I obtained the degree of Ph.D. (philosophy), The University of Michigan, in this year, with the dissertation The Confirmation of Causal Laws; in this, I presented a modal analysis of causal laws, combined it with Carnap-Hintikka theory of inductive logic, and showed how modal statements can be confirmed on actual, non-modal evidence.

I owe a great deal to Prof. Art Burks, for my research in Ann Arbor; he was teaching both in philosophy department and in computer sciences department. I also met Richard Hare in Ann Arbor.

With my wife Haruyo and new-born daughter, 1975 (age 32)

I was an instructor at the Institute for Study in Humanities, Kyoto Univ.; I got married to Haruyo the preceding year. Thanks to her support, I could concentrate on my research. I was invited to one of PSA symposia (at Chicago), the next year, and met Fred Suppe and Merrilee Salmon, two of the many products of Art Burks.

With my first daughter (11 months), 1975 (age 32)

At this time I was finishing my first book on (modal) logic, which appeared in 1976.

With my second daughter, 1984 (age 41)

I was then teaching at Osaka City University, and published a big paper on the development of utilitarianism, from Bentham, Mill, through Sidgwick to Hare.

While at Osaka City University, 1988 (age 45)

This year, I published a popular book Sherlock Holmes's Theory of Reasoning in which I argued Holmes was not only a good logician, but also knew the scientific methodology of his day, the inverse method of probability, which originates from Bayes and Laplace and adovocated by de Morgan and Jevons in the Great Britain.

In addition, I published a book on ethics, The Law of Freedom, the Logic of Interests, which treats ethical theories of two major traditions: contractualism and utilitarianism. Mainly because of this work, I was nominated to the Professor of Ethics at Kyoto University in 1990.

With Art Burks in Ann Arbor, 1991 (age 48)

I was visiting the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, this year; working on Boltzmann's kinetic theory of gases, and on the Darwin-Wallace priority problem, centering on the "Principle of Divergence": the result is my 1993 paper "Darwinn and Wallace on the Principle of Divergence".

With Kuri, 1996 (age 53)

In 1993 I was nominated to the new chair of Philosophy and History of Science, Kyoto University. In the same year, our family adopted a female stray cat, and I learned that cat is a very "useful" animal, contrary to my initial prejudice. This cat became a lubricator among our family and bore four kittens; and we retained one male (photo; also see CATS).

In the meantime, I published two books, Introduction to Philosophy of Science (1995) and Ethics and Theories of Evolution (1996); in the Preface of the latter, I acknowledged my indebtedness to our dog and cats, because the main theme of this book was the "reciprocal altruism". At this time, I finished my Japanese translation of Laplace's Philosophical Essay on Probabilities from the French original; the translation appeared in 1997.

Visit the sites of Phil. Hist. Science, Kyoto Univ.

February 20, 1999; last modified Sept. 20, 2007. PHOTOS: (c) Soshichi Uchii