Adolf Grünbaum received a first-class joint bachelor’s degree in philosophy and mathematics from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1943. He completed his education with a Master of Science degree and a Doctor of Philosophy from Yale University. In 1950, he joined Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he rose through the ranks to become full professor of philosophy, and subsequently Chair of Philosophy (1955-1960).

In the autumn of 1960, Adolf Grünbaum left Lehigh University to join the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh, where he became the first “Andrew Mellon Professor of Philosophy”. That same year, he also became founding director of the university’s “Center for the Philosophy of Science”.

In 2003, Adolf Grünbaum resigned from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, but retained his “Mellon professorship” for life. He served two terms as president of the “American Philosophical Association” and the “Philosophy of Science Association”. He was president of the “Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science” of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science (IUHPS) from 2004 to 2005, then automatically became president of the IUHPS from 2006 to 2007.

A vigorous critic of psychoanalysis, he raised the question of its scientific validity for several decades. In the United States, the prestige of Freudian theory has been contested more and more radically, whereas it has remained more or less intact in countries such as France. This philosophical challenging by Adolf Grünbaum has given rise to much stimulating and lively debate.