"Ian Hacking is a preeminent philosopher and historian of the sciences," reads the awards committee citation. "His analysis has profoundly altered our understanding of the ways in which key concepts emerge through scientific practices and in specific social and institutional contexts. His work lays bare the normative and social implications of the natural and the social sciences."

(Photo: Patrick Imbert/Holbergprisen)

Scientific realism 

Professor Hacking is known especially for his historical and philosophical approach to science. Throughout his career, he has addressed the central philosophical question of scientific realism: whether the theoretical entities postulated by the sciences - from "electron" to "multiple personality disorder" - are real in the same way as everyday objects

The professor considers his key long-term project to be his work on understanding the ways in which distinctive styles of scientific thinking have arisen from the early development of ancient mathematics, through the hypothetical modelling of the universe (Galileo), laboratory thinking, and taxonomic classification (Linnaeus) to probabilistic reasoning.

Awards ceremony in Bergen 

Haakon's Hall in Bergen. Professor Hacking will travel to Norway to accept the prize on 25 November at Håkonshallen (Haakon's Hall), a 13th-century stone hall built as part of the royal complex in Bergen, which was capital of Norway at the time.

Also to be awarded at the ceremony is the 2009 Nils Klim Prize - to David Bloch, whose research areas are Greek and Latin philology as well as the history of ancient and medieval philosophy at the the SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen. The Nils Klim Prize derives its name from Ludvig Holberg's only novel, The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground.