Logical Empiricism at Its Peak: Schlick, Carnap, and Neurath

425 Pages·2021·29.005 MB·English

by  Sahotra Sarkar (editor)

SCIENCE AND
PHILOSOPHY IN
THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY
Basic Works of
Logical Empiricism
SERIES EDITOR
SAHOTRA SARKAR
Dibner Institute at MIT
and McGill University
A GARLAND SERIES I N
READINGS IN P HILOSOPHY
ROBERT NOZICK, Advisor
Harvard University
SERIES CONTENTS
1. THE EMERGENCE OF LOGICAL EMPIRICISM
From 1900 to the Vienna Circle
2. LOGICAL EMPIRICISM AT ITS PEAK
Schlick, Carnap, and Neurath
3. LOGIC, PROBABILITY, AND EPISTEMOLOGY
The Power of Semantics
4. LOGICAL EMPIRICISM AND
THE SPECIAL SCIENCES
Reichenbach, Feigl, and N agel
5. DECLINE AND OBSOLESCENCE
OF LOGICAL EMPIRICISM
Carnap vs. Quine and t he Critics
6. THE LEGACY OF THE VIENNA CIRCLE
Modern Reappraisals
VOLUME

LOGICAL
EMPIRICISM
AT ITS PEAK
SCHLICK, CARNAP,
AND NEURATH
Edited with introductions by
SAHOTRA SARKAR
Dibner Institute at MIT
and McGill University
publisphuebdli shed 1996 by Garland Publishing, Inc
TIlls edition first published in 2021 by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Introductions copyright © 1996 Sahotra Sarkar
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Library of Congress Cataloging.in.Publication Data
Logical empiricism at its peak: Schlick, Carnap, and Neurath /
edited with introductions by Sahotra Sarkar.
p. cm. - (Science and philosophy in the twentieth
century; v. 2)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8153-2263-1 (alk. paper)
1. Logical positivism. 2. Logical positivism-History­
Sources. 3. Schlick, Moritz, 1882-1936. 4. Carnap, Rudolf,
1891-1970. 5. Neurath, Otto, 1882-1945. I. Schlick, Moritz,
1882-1936. n. Carnap, Rudolf, 1891-1970. Ill. Neurath, Otto,
1882-1945. IV. Sarkar, Sahotra. V. Series.
B824.6.L623 1996
146'.42-dc20 95-26649
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-1-03-216576-9 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-03-216723-7 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-00-324957-3 (ebk)
DOI: 1 0.4324/9781003249573
CONTENTS
Series I ntroduction vii
Volume I ntroduction xv
IDEOLOGY
The T urning-Point i n P hilosophy
Moritz Schlick 2
The E limination o f Metaphysics t hrough L ogical Analysis
of Language
Rudolf Carnap 10
Positivism a nd R ealism
Moritz Schlick 33
On t he C haracter o f Philosophic P roblems
Rudolf Carnap 59
PHYSICAL/SM
Physicalism
Otto N eurath 74
On P rotocol S entences
Rudolf Carnap 81
Radical P hysicalism a nd t he " Real W orId"
Otto N eurath 96
LOGIC A ND T HE P HILOSOPHY O F M ATHEMATICS
The L ogicist F oundations o f Mathematics
Rudolf Carnap 111
Discussion a bout t he F oundations o f Mathematics
HansHahn 133
vi Contents
The N ew L ogic
Karl M enger 141
TRUTH A ND C ONFIRMATION
On t he L ogical Positivists' T heory o f Truth
Carl G . Hempel 179
The L ogical C haracter o f the P rinciple o f Induction
Herbert F eigl 190
Testability a nd M eaning
Rudolf Carnap 200
ETHICS
What I s t he A im o f Ethics?
Moritz Schlick 267
The E motive M eaning o f Ethical T erms
Charles L eslie Stevenson 284
UNITY O F S CIENCE
The U nity o f Science M ovement a nd t he U nited S tates
Charles W. Morris 303
Unified S cience a s E ncyclopedic Integration
atto N eurath 309
COMMENTARIES
Carnap a nd t he P hilosophy o f Mathematics
Warren Goldfarb a nd T homas R icketts 337
"The B oundless O cean o f Unlimited P ossibilities":
Logic in C arnap's L ogical S yntax o f Language
Sahotra S arkar 355
Acknowledgments 403
SERIES INTRODUCTION
The early years of the twentieth century saw remarkable
developments in the sciences, particularly physics and biology.
The c entury began with Planck's introduction of what came to b e
known as the "quantum hypothesis," followed by the work of
Einstein, B ohr, and o thers, w hich p aved t he w ay f or the d evelop­
ment of q uantum mechanics in the 1920s. It r emains the most
radical departure from the classical worldview that p hysics has
seen. N ot o nly w ere s ome p hysical q uantities " quantized," t hat i s,
they c ould o nly h ave d iscrete v alues, b ut t here w ere s ituations i n
which some of t hese values were indeterminate. Perhaps even
worse, the b asic d ynamics o f physical s ystems w as i ndeterminis­
tic. The mechanical picture of the world, inherited from the
seventeenth century, and already u nder a ttack d uring t he n ine­
teenth, finally collapsed beyond hope of r ecovery. Nevertheless,
the n ew p hysics w as u navoidable. N ot o nly d id a tomic p henomena
abide by its rules, but it provided a successful account of chemical
bonding and valency. Meanwhile, in 1 905, Einstein's special theory
of relativity challenged classical notions of space and time. A
decade l ater, g eneral r elativity r eplaced g ravitation a s a force by
the curvature of s pace-time. Developments in astrophysics con­
firmed g eneral r elativity's u nusual c laims.
Also around 1 900, b iologists r ecovered t he l aws f or t he t rans­
mission of hereditary factors, or "genes." These laws, though
published by Mendel i n 1 865, h ad r emained largely unknown for a
generation. By 1905, a new science called "genetics" had been
created. For t he f irst t ime, t he p henomena o f heredity w ere sub­
sumed u nder exact ( mathematical) l aws. I n t he e arly 1 920s, t hese
laws were used by Fisher, Haldane, and Wright to formulate a
quantitative,basically testable theory of evolution by natural
selection. Around 1900 it also became clear that t he t ransfer of
chromosomes m ediated t he t ransmission o f hereditary characters
from parents to offspring. Between 1910 and 1920, genes were
shown t o b e linearly positioned o n c hromosomes. T he r udiments o f
a physical account of b iological inheritance w ere in p lace by t he
mid-1920s. Eventually t his work w as integrated w ith o ther b io­
logical subdisciplines, especially biochemistry (itself largely a
Series Introduction
VLl~
turn-of-the-century creation), t o generate m olecular biology, a rgu­
ably the greatest triumph of science since 1 950.
The philosophical response to the a dvances of early twentieth
century s cience w as s chizophrenic. S ome p hilosophers, e specially
in Germany, ignored scientific developments almost altogether
and c ontinued t o elaborate e xtensive metaphysical s ystems h av­
ing little contact with the physical world. Collectively, these
projects came to be called phenomenology. In sharp contrast,
another g roup o f philosophers a ttempted t o r eform-or, p erhaps,
even replace-academic philosophy so as to bring it into conso­
nance w ith m odern s cience. At t imes, t hey c laimed t o h ave i nher­
ited t he m antles o f Aristotle a nd D escartes, N ewton a nd L eibniz,
Locke and H ume, Kant a nd M arx. More often, t hey c laimed t o b e
doing s omething a ltogether n ovel.
Most prominent a mong t he l atter g roup o f p hilosophers w ere
those who c alled themselves "logical positivists" or "logical empiri­
cists." M any o f them w ere a ssociated, i n t heir e arly y ears, w ith a
group t hat m et r egularly i n V ienna (starting i n 1922) and called
itself the V ienna C ircle. T he c entral f igure w as M oritz S chlick. ( A
complete list of members of the Vienna C ircle will be found i n their
1929 m anifesto, w hich i s r eprinted i n V olume 2 .) The m embers o f
the V ienna C ircle h ad a n a lmost w orshipful a ttitude t owards t he
new physics though, in general, they seemed to have been com­
pletely ignorant of the equally fundamental c hanges taking place
in b iology. T hey were impressed b y developments i n logic, p articu­
larly Whitehead a nd R ussell's a ttempt t o c arry out F rege's p roject
of constructing m athematics f rom logic. Kurt G odel, a member o f
the V ienna C ircle, t hough h ardly a logical e mpiricist i n h is p hilo­
sophicalleanings, p robed t he foundations o flogic a nd s howed that
any r elatively c omplex system of m athematics must a llow state­
ments t o be f ormulated that c an n either b e p roved n or d isproved
using formalized r ules o f proof-this is G odel's famous i ncomplete­
ness t heorem.
Meanwhile, in Berlin, a s maller group around Hans Reichenbach
came to a similar philosophical orientation and concentrated on
probing the foundations o f physics. In Poland, an eminent group of
logicians, w ith A lfred T arski a s t he c entral f igure, began e qually
important investigations of l ogical notions. There was consider­
able i ntellectual e xchange b etween t hese d ifferent g roups. These
exchanges led t o convergence o n m any p oints-the p hilosophical
theses t hat were m ost c ommonly a dvanced w ill b e d escribed b elow
(and i n t he i ntroductions t o V olumes 1 -4).
To r eturn t o t he h istorical s tory, m ost ofthe l ogical e mpiricists
had r elatively p rogressive p olitics. A few, notably O tto Neurath,
Series Introduction ix
were a vowed M arxists. O thers, i ncluding RudolfCarnap and Hans
Hahn, were socialists. With the rise of nazism and fascism in
Europe i n t he 1 930s, m any o fthe l ogical e mpiricists e migrated t o
Britain a nd, especially, to t he U nited S tates. T here t hey e ventu­
ally came to establish a temporary hegemony over academic
philosophy. R eichenbach m oved t o t he U niversity o f California a t
Los Angeles; Herbert Feigl to the University of M innesota; and
Carnap to the University of Chicago. M eanwhile, during his youth­
ful days, W .V.O. Quine w as a lready p reaching t he l ogical e mpiri­
cist gospel at Harvard. Of t he major figures, only Neurath re­
mained i n E urope. (Hans H ahn h ad d ied i n 1 934 a nd S chlick h ad
been m urdered in 1 936-see the i ntroduction t o V olume 2 .)
Because of its migration to the U .S., l ogical empiricism b ecame
part o fthe A nglo-American t radition i n p hilosophy, i n s pite o f its
European origins. It i s at l east arguable that as a movement it
matured in the U.S. H owever, in spite of being relatively organized
compared to other philosophical movements, the logical empiri­
cists did not present a unified system of universally held theses-a
point that seems to e lude t heir modern critics-though they gener­
ally e xhibited a coherent a ttitude t o t he a nalysis o f philosophical
problems. This attitude can be traced back to the 1920s. They
generally accepted an a priori faith in logic, though they were
sometimes known to d isagree o n what logic c ould be. O ther than in
logic (and in mathematics, which, for most logical empiricists,
could be derived from logic), the logical empiricists endorsed a
thoroughgoing empiricism-hence t heir n ame. A ll f actual ( that is,
nonlogical) k nowledge w as u ltimately e mpirical. A sharp d istinc­
tion b etween e mpirical, a posteriori, s ynthetic c laims o n o ne h and
and a p riori, a nalytic c laims o n t he o ther was a cherished d octrine
for m ost (but not all) l ogical e mpiricists. I ts r ejection b y Q uine a nd
others i n t he 1 950s w as a significant e vent i n t he d ecline o flogical
empiricism ( see V olume 5 ).
Any c laim t hat w as n either l ogic n or a ble t o b e a djudicated b y
empirical m eans w as r ejected b y t he l ogical e mpiricists a s " mean­
ingless" or "cognitively i nsignificant," whatever i ts noncognitive
(for i nstance, e motional) appeal. Logic escaped t his f ate by b eing
true by virtue o f meaning (of the l ogical c onnectives s uch as " not"
and "and" and operators such as "all," "any," and "some") or of
conventions. M athematics was t rue because it could b e r educed t o,
or constructed from, logic. Besides logic, the logical empiricists
generally did not a ccept a ny o ther normative d iscipline a s c onsist­
ing of m eaningful claims. (Ethical claims, according to some of
them, were only devices to evoke appropriate emotive r esponses
from o thers.)