Logical Positivism in Perspective

Logical Positivism in Perspective PDF

Author: Barry Gower

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13:

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1986 is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of A. J. Ayer's Language, Truth and Logic, which is commonly considered one of the most influential books in twentieth-century philosophy. These essays offer a comprehensive appraisal of the influence and impact of Ayer's work and analyze the ways in which Ayer's arguments have been absorbed, modified, or rejected by various philosophers. A noteworthy feature of the book is an original essay by A. J. Ayer that assesses the influence of his work in philosophy over the last fifty years.

An Examination of Logical Positivism

An Examination of Logical Positivism PDF

Author: Julius Rudolph Weinberg

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-19

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1317833155

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First published in 2000. This is Volume II of six in the Library of Philosophy series on the Philosophy of Science. Written in 1938, philosophical systems which employ logical methods almost exclusively would undoubtedly be expected to produce non-empirical results. If, however, logic is taken simply as a method of connecting meanings it is not difficult to reconcile logical methods with empirical results. If logical formular, in other words, assert nothing about the meanings of propositions, but simply show how such meanings are connected, then an empiricism based on a logical analysis of meanings is not inconsistent. This is what the Logical Positivists have attempted to do. This book looks at two areas: the foundations of a scientific method free from metaphysics, and the elimination of pseudo-concepts introduced by metaphysics into science and philosophy.

The Vienna Circle and Logical Empiricism

The Vienna Circle and Logical Empiricism PDF

Author: F. Stadler

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-06-09

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 0306482142

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This work is for scholars, researchers and students in history and philosophy of science focusing on Logical Empiricism and analytic philosophy (of science). It provides historical and systematic research and deals with the influence and impact of the Vienna Circle/Logical Empiricism on today's philosophy of science. It also explores the intellectual context of this scientific philosophy and focuses on main figures and peripheral adherents.

The Cambridge Companion to Quine

The Cambridge Companion to Quine PDF

Author: Roger F. Gibson, Jr

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-03-29

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 1139825801

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W. V. Quine (1908–2000) was quite simply the most distinguished analytic philosopher of the later half of the twentieth century. His celebrated attack on the analytic/synthetic tradition heralded a major shift away from the views of language descended from logical positivism. His most important book, Word and Object, introduced the concept of indeterminacy of radical translation, a bleak view of the nature of the language with which we ascribe thoughts and beliefs to ourselves and others. Quine is also famous for the view that epistemology should be naturalized, that is conducted in a scientific spirit with the object of investigating the relationship between the inputs of experience and the outputs of belief. The eleven essays in this volume cover all the central topics of Quine's philosophy: the underdetermination of physical theory, analycity, naturalism, propositional attitudes, behaviorism, reference and ontology, positivism, holism and logic.

The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism

The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism PDF

Author: Alan Richardson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-09-03

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 1139826433

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If there is a movement or school that epitomizes analytic philosophy in the middle of the twentieth century, it is logical empiricism. Logical empiricists created a scientifically and technically informed philosophy of science, established mathematical logic as a topic in and tool for philosophy, and initiated the project of formal semantics. Accounts of analytic philosophy written in the middle of the twentieth century gave logical empiricism a central place in the project. The second wave of interpretative accounts was constructed to show how philosophy should progress, or had progressed, beyond logical empiricism. The essays survey the formative stages of logical empiricism in central Europe and its acculturation in North America, discussing its main topics, and achievements and failures, in different areas of philosophy of science, and assessing its influence on philosophy, past, present, and future.

The Limits of Analysis

The Limits of Analysis PDF

Author: Stanley Rosen

Publisher: Carthage Reprint

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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Philosophy in the twentieth century has been dominated by the urge for analysis, a methodology that is supposed to be comparable in clarity and correctness to scientific thought. In this brilliant and devastating attack on such exaggerated claims, Stanley Rosen demonstrates how analysis alone lacks the power to approach the deepest and most important philosophical questions. He thus provides us with a new and deeper understanding of the nature and limits of analytic thinking.

Logical Empiricism

Logical Empiricism PDF

Author: Paolo Parrini

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published: 2010-06-15

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0822970724

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Logical empiricism, a program for the study of science that attempted to provide logical analyses of the nature of scientific concepts, the relation between evidence and theory, and the nature of scientific explanation, formed among the famed Vienna and Berlin Circles of the 1920s and '30s and dominated the philosophy of science throughout much of the twentieth century. In recent decades, a "post-positivist" philosophy, deriding empiricism and its claims in light of more recent historical and sociological discoveries, has been the ascendant mode of philosophy and other disciplines in the arts and sciences.This book features original research that challenges such broad oppositions. In eleven essays, leading scholars from many nations construct a more nuanced understanding of logical empiricism, its history, and development, offering promising implications for current philosophy of science debates.Tapping rich resources of unpublished material from archives in Haarlem, Konstanz, Pittsburgh, and Vienna, contributors conduct a deep investigation into the origins and development of the Vienna and Berlin Circles. They expose the roots of the philosophy in such varied sources as Cassirer, Poincaire, Husserl, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein. Important connections between the empiricists and other movements—neo-empiricism, British empiricism—are vigorously explored.Building on these historical studies, a critical reevaluation emerges that shrinks the distance between old and new philosophers of science, between "analytic" and "Continental" philosophy. A number of compelling recent debates, including those involving Kuhn, Feyerabend, Hesse, Glymour, and Hanson, are reopened to show the ways in which logical empiricist theory can still be validly applied.Logical Empiricism is the result of a remarkable conference, convened in the spirit of reflection and international cooperation, that took place in Florence, Italy, in 1999.

Language, Truth and Logic

Language, Truth and Logic PDF

Author: Alfred Jules Ayer

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-04-18

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 0486113094

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"A delightful book … I should like to have written it myself." — Bertrand Russell First published in 1936, this first full-length presentation in English of the Logical Positivism of Carnap, Neurath, and others has gone through many printings to become a classic of thought and communication. It not only surveys one of the most important areas of modern thought; it also shows the confusion that arises from imperfect understanding of the uses of language. A first-rate antidote for fuzzy thought and muddled writing, this remarkable book has helped philosophers, writers, speakers, teachers, students, and general readers alike. Mr. Ayers sets up specific tests by which you can easily evaluate statements of ideas. You will also learn how to distinguish ideas that cannot be verified by experience — those expressing religious, moral, or aesthetic experience, those expounding theological or metaphysical doctrine, and those dealing with a priori truth. The basic thesis of this work is that philosophy should not squander its energies upon the unknowable, but should perform its proper function in criticism and analysis.