Questions tagged [logical-positivism]

The philosophical view that only statements verifiable either logically or empirically would be cognitively meaningful.

The philosophical view that only statements verifiable either logically or empirically would be cognitively meaningful.

Concerning reality, the necessary is a state true in all possible worlds—mere logical validity—whereas the contingent hinges on the way the particular world is. Concerning knowledge, the a priori is knowable before or without, whereas the a posteriori is knowable only after or through, relevant experience. Concerning statements, the analytic is true via terms' arrangement and meanings, thus a tautology—true by logical necessity but uninformative about the world—whereas the synthetic adds reference to a state of facts, a contingency.

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What are/were the main criticisms of logical positivism?

Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, was a school of analytic philosophy famously connected with the Vienna circle and with a significant following up until the 1950's. What were the main criticisms that were articulated to refute…
eMansipater
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Should Wittgenstein be given some credit for Godel's incompleteness theorem?

Is there a connection between Wittgenstein's argument against the "Theory of Types" and the proof of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem? Being only semi-knowledgeable, I will draw the connection of which I am thinking: it seems that Godel's proof…
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Is logical positivism "dead" today?

John Passmore in 1967 said that logical positivism "...is dead, or as dead as a philosophical movement ever becomes." Are there any modern philosophers that advocate logical positivism the same way Vienna Circle did? If not, to what principles and…
Mirzhan Irkegulov
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What are some ways to read Wittgenstein's Tractatus other than resolute/irresolute?

There are, at present, two dominant ways to read Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP). One is called the irresolute reading, the other the resolute reading. The irresolute reading takes what is called an inaustere view of nonsense:…
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Is Hume's Fork self-refuting?

David Hume wrote: If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter…
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What did John Passmore mean when he reported that logical positivism "is dead"?

The philosophical school of logical positivism (which later became known as "logical empiricism") was a type of analytic philosophy that attempted to combine empiricism with rationalist epistemology. From a brief examination of history, it appears…
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How did the logical positivists respond to Gödel's incompleteness theorem?

In a lecture on philosophy of science I recently listened to, it was stated that Quine was the one who decisively refuted the logical positivist program. I've also read that Quine and Popper were significant challengers, but that it was Kuhn who…
Alexander S King
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How to distinguish between 'a priori/posteriori' and 'analytic/synthetic'?

What I think I know A priori knowledge that can be gained by contemplating only the meaning of a statement's words. A posteriori knowledge can be gained only by comparing a statement's meaning with the state of affairs. Analytic knowledge that can…
Hal
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Is homeopathy verifiable?

Would homeopathy be verifiable according to the logic positivists (and thus science)? On the one hand, one could, in principle, observe patients recovering after being given a homeopathic medicine. On the other hand, one could say that the…
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Should we not talk about ethics according to Wittgenstein?

Wittgenstein says in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: 6.4 All propositions are of equal value. 6.41 The sense of the world must lie outside the world. In the world everything is as it is and happens as it does happen. In it there is no…
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Did Gödel oppose or agree with the Logical Positivists?

Gödel was a member of the Vienna Circle, whose philosophical position as a group was Logical Positivism, or Logical Empiricism. The SEP article on him states that among his philosophical views were realism, rationalism, and Platonism. These all…
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Did the Logical Positivists accept synthetic a priori knowledge?

My understanding of Logical Positivists is that, following Wittgenstein, they accepted only 2 types of proposition as meaningful: Propositions based on formal logic (i.e. tautologies) Empirically verifiable statements It seems to me that these…
Alexander S King
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How do Logical Positivists respond to the "Positivism is self-defeating" argument

Positivism asserts that any statement that cannot be empirically tested is meaningless. But obviously, this is a self-refuting statement, because it can't be empirically verified as well. How do the logical positivists, or the descendants (…
Graviton
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How to express Kant's notion of existence on first-order logic according to Ayer?

In Language, Truth, and Logic, Ayer writes: [As] Kant pointed out, existence is not an attribute. For, when we ascribe an attribute to a thing, we covertly assert that it exists. However, I can't see how it can hold in first-order logic, for…
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To what extent did the logical positivists actually reject traditional philosophy?

Logical positivism is often taught as one of the three new schools of philosophy, together with pragmatism and phenomenology, that went against traditional philosophy in a radical manner. While I am certainly not disputing that rejecting metaphysics…
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