Published in The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, ed.

Tom Flynn, Prometheus Books, 2007

___________________________________________________________________________________ LOGICAL POSITIVISM (also known as logical em iricism or logical neo ositi!ism" was a hiloso hical mo!ement risen in #ustria and $ermany in %&20s, rimarily concerned with the logical analysis o' scienti'ic knowledge, which a''irmed that statements about meta hysics, religion, and ethics are !oid o' cogniti!e meaning and thus nothing but e( ression o' 'eelings or desires) only statements about mathematics, logic and natural sciences ha!e a de'inite meaning. *ts members included +udol' ,arna (%-&%.%&70", considered the leading 'igure o' logical ositi!ism, /erbert Feigl (%&02.--", Phili Frank (%--0.%&11", 2urt $relling (%--1.%&02", /ans /ahn (%-7&.%&30", ,arl $usta! /em el (%&04.&7", 5ictor 2ra't (%--0.%&74", 6tto 7eurath (%--2.%&04", /ans +eichenbach (%-&%.%&43", 8orit9 :chlick (%--2.%&31", Friedrich ;aismann (%-&1.%&4&". History. <instein=s theory o' relati!ity e(erted a great in'luence o!er the origin o' logical ositi!ism. >ogical ositi!ists were !ery interested in clari'ying the hiloso hical signi'icance o' the theory o' relati!ity. :chlick wrote in %&%4 and %&%7 two essays on relati!ity, +eichenbach attended <instein=s lectures on the theory o' relati!ity at Berlin ?ni!ersity in %&%7 and wrote in %&20s 'our books on relati!ity, and ,arna =s 'irst work was an essay about the theory o' s ace ublished in %&22. #lso @uantum mechanics was a maAor subAect o' hiloso hical in!estigations. ;orks about @uantum mechanics were ublished by :chlick and +eichenbach. #nother in'luence o!er logical ositi!ism was e(erted by the de!elo ment o' 'ormal logic. ,arna attended three courses on logic under the direction o' $ottlob Frege, the 'ather o' modern logic. >ogical ositi!ism had e(tensi!e contacts with the grou o' Polish logicians (mainly Ban >ukasiewic9, 2a9imier9 #Adukiewic9, and #l'red Tarski" which de!elo ed se!eral branches o' contem orary logic, like the algebra o' logic, many.!alued ro ositional calculus, and the semantics 'or logic. *n %&30s logical ositi!ism was a rominent hiloso hical mo!ement, known in ?:# and <uro e, !ery acti!e in ad!ertising its new hiloso hical ideas. :e!eral meetings on e istemology and hiloso hy o' science were organi9edC Prague (%&2&", 2onigsberg (%&30", where 2urt $odel resented the theorems asserting the com leteness o' 'irst.order redicate calculus and the incom leteness o' 'ormal arithmetic, and Prague (%&30". The First ,ongress o' :cienti'ic Philoso hy was held in Paris (%&34", 'ollowed by ,o enhagen (%&31", Paris (%&37", ,ambridge, ?.2. (%&3-", and ,ambridge, 8ass. (%&3&". The olitical attitudes o' logical ositi!ists were rogressi!e, democratic and sometimes socialist, and aroused the hostility 'rom 7a9ism. #'ter /itler sei9ure o' ower in %&33, many logical ositi!ists were ersecuted and 'orced to emigrate 'rom #ustria and $ermany) two o' them (:chlick and $relling" were murdered. 7eurath and ;aismann sought re'uge in <ngland. ?:# became the new home 'or ,arna
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(he taught at the ?ni!ersity o' ,hicago and at the ?ni!ersity o' ,ali'ornia at >os #ngeles", Feigl (?ni!ersity o' *owa and ?ni!ersity o' 8innesota", Frank (/ar!ard ?ni!ersity", /em el (Dale ?ni!ersity, Princeton ?ni!ersity, and ?ni!ersity o' Pittsburgh", and +eichenbach (?ni!ersity o' ,ali'ornia at >os #ngeles". Meaning. #ccording to logical ositi!ism, all meaning'ul statements can be di!ided in two classes, one containing the statements that are true or 'alse in !irtue o' their logical 'orms or in !irtue o' their meaning (these statements are called analytic a riori", the other containing the statements whose truth or 'alsity can be ascertained only by means o' the e( erience (called synthetic a osteriori". >ogic and mathematics belong to the class o' analytic a riori statements, since they are true in !irtue o' the meaning ascribed to the logical constants (the words =and=, =or=, =not=, =i'=" and to the mathematical terms. The class o' synthetic a osteriori statements includes all genuine scienti'ic statements, like those o' hysics, biology, sychology. # statement is meaning'ul i' and only i' it can be ro!ed true or 'alse, at least in rinci le, by means o' the e( erience or in !irtue o' its meaning. 8oreo!er, the meaning o' a statement is its method o' !eri'ication) that is, we know the meaning o' a statement only i' we know the conditions under which the statement is true or 'alse (this assertion is called the !eri'iability rinci le". Thus statements about meta hysics, religion and ethics are meaningless and must be reAected as nonsensical. #lso traditional hiloso hy is o'ten regarded as meaningless. 8any alleged hiloso hical roblems, like the contro!ersy between realists and instrumentalists, are indeed seudo roblems, the outcome o' a misuse o' language. They do not concern matters o' 'act, but the choice between di''erent linguistic 'rameworks. Thus the logical analysis o' language was regarded by logical ositi!ism as a maAor instrument in resol!ing hiloso hical roblems. ,haracteristic o' this as ect was the intense analysis o' scienti'ic language er'ormed by ,arna and /em el. Scientific language. # scienti'ic theory, according to logical ositi!ism, is an a(iomatic system which ac@uires an em irical inter retation 'rom suitable statements, called coordinati!e de'initions (or rinci les o' coordination or a(ioms o' connection", which establish a correlation between real obAects or rocesses and the abstract conce ts o' the theory. The language o' a scienti'ic theory includes three kinds o' termsC logical, obser!ational and theoretical. >ogical terms denote the logical constants and the mathematical obAects, obser!ational terms denote obAects or ro erties that can be directly obser!ed or measured, and theoretical terms denote obAects or ro erties we cannot obser!e or measure but we can only in'er 'rom direct obser!ations. <(am les o' theoretical terms are =electron=, =atom=, =magnetic 'ield=. The early logical ositi!ism belie!ed that all theoretical terms were de'inable with the hel o' the obser!ational terms. Further researches, er'ormed by ,arna and /em el, showed that theoretical
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terms cannot be de'ined by obser!ational ones, and thus theoretical terms are indis ensable in a scienti'ic theory. Pragmatic as ects o' scienti'ic research were not considered by logical ositi!ism, which was not interested in the real rocess o' disco!ering, but was concerned with the rational reconstruction o' scienti'ic knowledge, that is the study o' the logical ('ormal" relationshi s between statements, hy othesis, and em irical e!idence. Ethics. The logical ositi!ist most interested in ethics was :chlick. /e endea!ored to gi!e an account o' ethics in agreement with the hiloso hical rinci les o' logical ositi!ism. :chlick maintained that ethics is a descri ti!e scienti'ic theory. :tatements about ethics are not normati!e statements rescribing how eo le ought to beha!e, because in this case they were meaningless, in !irtue o' the !eri'iability rinci le. :tatements about ethics are indeed descri ti!e statements relating to the origin and the e!olution o' the ethical rinci les in human society. :chlick asserted that human beings naturally re'er conditions that do not roduce ain and do roduce leasure) thus, in a 'irst time, good is sim ly whate!er that gi!es leasure and no ain, and the !ery 'irst ethical rinci le is an egoistic one. /owe!er, human beha!ior is subAect to the natural e!olution which sometimes selects an altruistic and coo erati!e way o' action as more ada ted than a urely egoistic one. This is articularly true in a com le( human society, where we can 'ind a struggle between an egoistic beha!ior, suggested by the human nature, and a social beha!ior, generated by the natural e!olution. Bi liogra!hy. Barone, Francesco. Il neopositivismo logico. BariC >ater9a, %&77. Beckwith, Burnham Putnam. Religion, Philosophy, and Science; an Introd ction to !ogical Positivism. 7ew DorkC Philoso hical >ibrary, %&47. ,arna , +udol'. "n Introd ction to the Philosophy of Science. 7ew DorkC Basic Books, %&70. Er#enntnis orientated$ a %entennial &ol me for R dolf %arnap and 'ans Reichenbach. EordrechtC 2luwer #cademic Publishers, %&&%. Friedman, 8ichael. Reconsidering !ogical Positivism. ,ambridge, ?.2.C ,ambridge ?ni!ersity Press, %&&&. !ogic, !ang age, and the Str ct re of Scientific Theories$ Proceedings of the %arnap(Reichenbach %entennial, University of )onstan*, +,(+- .ay ,//,. PittsburghC ?ni!ersity o' Pittsburgh Press, %&&%. !ogical Empiricism ( 'istorical and %ontemporary Perspectives. PittsburghC ?ni!ersity o' Pittsburgh Press, 2003. 7agel, <rnest. The Str ct re of Science. 7ew DorkC /arcourt, Brace F ;orld, %&1%. +eichenbach, /ans. Philosophical 0o ndations of 1 ant m .echanics. Berkeley and >os #ngelesC ?ni!ersity o' ,ali'ornia Press, %&00. .......... The Philosophy of Space and Time. 7ew DorkC Eo!er Publications, %&4-. 8auro 8ur9i mauroGmur9im.net
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