The Vienna Circle and Logical Empiricism: Re-Evaluation and Future Perspectives

421 Pages·5.138 MB·English

by  Friedrich Stadler (auth.), Friedrich Stadler (eds.)

THE VIENNA CIRCLE
AND LOGICAL EMPIRICISM
VIENNA CIRCLE INSTITUTE YEARBOOK [2002]
10
VIENNA CIRCLE INSTITUTE YEARBOOK [2002]
10
Institut ‘Wiener Kreis’
Society for the Advancement of the Scientific World Conception
Series-Editor:
Friedrich Stadler
University of Vienna, Austria
and Director, Institut ‘Wiener Kreis’
Advisory Editorial Board: Honorary Consulting Editors:
Rudolf Haller, University of Graz, Austria, Coordinator Kurt E. Baier
Nancy Cartwright, London School of Economics, UK Francesco Barone †
Robert S. Cohen, Boston University, USA C.G. Hempel †
Wilhelm K. Essler, University of Frankfurt/M., Germany Stephan Körner †
Kurt Rudolf Fischer, University of Vienna, Austria Henk Mulder †
Michael Friedman, University of Indiana, Bloomington, USA Arne Naess
Peter Galison, Harvard University, USA Paul Neurath †
Adolf Grünbaum, University of Pittsburgh, USA Willard Van Orman Quine †
Rainer Hegselmann, University of Bayreuth, Germany Marx W. Wartofsky †
Michael Heidelberger, University of Tübingen, Germany
Jaakko Hintikka, Boston University, USA Review Editor:
Gerald Holton, Harvard University, USA Michael Stöltzner, University of Bielefeld, Germany
Don Howard, University of Notre Dame, USA
Allan S. Janik, University of Innsbruck, Austria Editorial Work/Layout/Production:
Richard Jeffrey, Princeton University, USA
Hartwig Jobst
Andreas Kamlah, University of Osnabrück, Germany
Robert Kaller
Eckehart Köhler, University of Vienna, Austria
Camilla R. Nielsen
Anne J. Kox, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Erich Papp
Saul A. Kripke, Princeton University, USA
Christopher Roth
Elisabeth Leinfellner, University of Vienna, Austria
Werner Leinfellner, Technical University of Vienna, Austria
James G. Lennox, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Brian McGuinness, University of Siena, Italy Editorial Address:
Kevin Mulligan, Université de Genève, Switzerland Institut ‘Wiener Kreis’
Elisabeth Nemeth, University of Vienna, Austria Museumstrasse 5/2/19,A–1070 Wien, Austria
Julian Nida-Rümelin, University of Göttingen, Germany Tel.: [phone] (international)
Helga Nowotny, ETH Zürich, Switzerland or 01/5261005 (national)
Erhard Oeser, University of Vienna, Austria Fax.: [phone] (international)
Joëlle Proust, École Polytechnique CREA Paris, France or 01/5248859 (national)
Alan Richardson, University of British Columbia, CDN email: [email protected]
Peter Schuster, University of Vienna, Austria homepage: http://ivc.philo.at
Jan Šebestik, CNRS Paris, France
Karl Sigmund, University of Vienna, Austria
Hans Sluga, University of California at Berkeley, USA
Elliott Sober, University of Wisconsin, USA
Antonia Soulez, Université de Paris 8, France
Wolfgang Spohn, University of Konstanz, Germany
Christian Thiel, University of Erlangen, Germany
Walter Thirring, University of Vienna, Austria
Thomas E. Uebel, University of Manchester, UK
Georg Winckler, University of Vienna, Austria
Ruth Wodak, University of Vienna, Austria
Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, Austria
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
THE VIENNA CIRCLE
AND LOGICAL EMPIRICISM
RE-EVALUATION AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
Edited by
FRIEDRICH STADLER
University of Vienna, and
Institute Vienna Circle, Austria
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK,BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW
eBookISBN: 0-306-48214-2
Print ISBN: 1-4020-1269-1
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EDITORIAL
On the occasion of its anniversary, the Institut Wiener Kreis/Vienna Circle
Institute, together with the Zentrum für überfakultäre Forschung/Center for In-
terdisciplinary Research of the University of Vienna, organized an international
symposium on “The Vienna Circle and Logical Empiricism. Re-Evaluation and
Future Perspectives of Research and Historiography”. This event was hosted by
the Department of Contemporary History at the Campus of the University of
Vienna, in Vienna July 12 – 14, 2001.
The Institute Vienna Circle (IVC) was founded in 1991 as a non-profit soci-
ety. It has been supported ever since by the Austrian Ministry of Science and Re-
search and the City of Vienna. The institute is a member of the International
Union of the History and Philosophy of Science – Division of Logic, Methodol-
ogy and Philosophy of Science, and has been working together with the Univer-
sity of Vienna since 1997 on the basis of a co-operation agreement.
Since the very outset, the IVC has worked together closely with similar
institutes and societies in Austria and abroad, focusing on the promotion, culti-
vation and dissemination of a scientific philosophy and history and philosophy of
science in the tradition and spirit of the Vienna Circle/Logical Empiricism. The
Institute’s research activities also include the documentation, application and
development of its results. IVC adheres to a pluralist and (post-)enlightened con-
ception of science and philosophy of science that is committed to the democrati-
zation of knowledge and science and the critique of all forms of irrationalism,
dogmatism, and fundamentalism. To this end, the IVC regularly organizes con-
ferences and lectures in Austria and abroad, edits three book series (in English
and German), and maintains a library and archives with materials by, and on,
members of the Vienna Circle and associated philosophers as well as scientists.
(cf. survey at the IVC’s Website: http://ivc.philo.at).
As regards the most recent activities, one should draw attention to the Vienna
International Summer University – Scientific World Conceptions, which has
been taking place every year (in July) since 2001 at the University Campus. Each
summer university has had a different focus on research-related topics: 2001
(Unity and Plurality of Science), 2002 (Mind and Computation), and 2003
(Cosmological and Biological Evolution). Another current activity is our partici-
pation in the ongoing ESF-Network on “Historical and Contemporary Perspec-
tives of Philosophy of Science in Europe”, from 2001 to 2003, which is planned
to be extended as a follow-up program of ESF. The edition of Moritz Schlick’s
papers (Moritz Schlick Edition) is another international research and publication
project, which is presently underway with a team of scholars from the University
of Graz and the University of Rostock (Germany). The proceedings of the “Third
VI EDITORIAL
International History of Philosophy of Science Conference” (HOPOS 2000) are
to be found here in the Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook 9/2001.
This Yearbook presents the contributions of invited lecturers as well as a
selection of contributed papers of the aforementioned anniversary jubilee
conference. It also features work from international research and historiography
on Logical Empiricism and its influence, in addition to its further development
by renowned scholars and a younger generation of philosophers. We have di-
vided this yearbook papers into thematic chapters that focus on the origins, his-
tory and historiography, with such leading figures as Schlick and Reichenbach
along with other members of this influential movement. The yearbook also ad-
dresses more topical issues such as the unity and plurality of science, contexts of
science, epistemology and ethics, and some (long neglected) women of Logical
Empiricism. The reception of the Vienna Circle/Logical Empiricism in the So-
viet Union and Russia is dealt with in a special concluding report section.
As usual, the volume also has a review section on recent publications dealing
with scientific philosophy and philosophy of science.
In this regard it is important to note that the selected papers on Rudolf Carnap
have been published separately in the volume of the IVC series “Vienna
Circle Institute Library” established this year. This volume, Language, Truth,
and Knowledge, edited by Thomas Bonk, is to appear at the same time as this
Yearbook published by Kluwer. Several other invited papers will be part of the
forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism, ed. by Alan
Richardson and Thomas Uebel.
Last not least let me thank to all who helped make the anniversary conference
possible and contributed to the publication of the proceedings in these two vol-
umes: my colleagues Elisabeth Nemeth and Eckehart Koehler as members of the
Program Committee, the members of the Local Organizing Committee with
Margit (Mischa) Kurka, Daria Mascha, Robert Kaller from the IVC and
Marianne Ertl from the Department of Contemporary History. Here I would like
to express my sincere gratitude to our financial supporters: the Austrian Ministry
of Education, Science and Culture, the City of Vienna (Division of Culture) and
the Bank Austria. Finally, I would like to thank our review editor Michael
Stöltzner, and Camilla Nielsen, Christopher Roth and Hartwig Jobst, who,
together with members of the Advisory Editorial Board, were involved in the
production of this Yearbook.
Vienna, October 2002 Friedrich Stadler
(University of Vienna,
and Vienna Circle Institute)
TABLE OFCONTENTS
A. THE VIENNA CIRCLE AND LOGICAL EMPIRICISM
FRIEDRICHSTADLER:What is the Vienna Circle?
Some Methodological and Historiographical Answers XI
I. ORIGINSANDHISTORY
ARNENAESS:Pluralism of Tenable World Views 3
PAOLOPARRINI:On the Formation of Logical Empiricism 9
ANITAVONDUHN: Bolzano’s Account of Justification 21
DAVIDJALALHYDER: Kantian Metaphysics and Hertzian Mechanics 35
II. MORITZ SCHLICK
HUBERTSCHLEICHERT:Moritz Schlick’s Idea of Non-territorial States 49
MASSIMOFERRARI: An Unknown Side of Moritz Schlick’s Intellectual
Biography: the Reviews for the “Vierteljahrschrift für wissenschaftliche
Philosophie und Soziologie” (1911-1916) 63
HANSJÜRGENWENDEL: Between Meaning and Demarcation 79
DAGMARBORCHERS:“Let’s Talk about Flourishing!” – Moritz Schlick
and the Non-cognitive Foundation of Virtue Ethics 95
III.HANSREICHENBACH
CARSTENKLEIN: Coordination and Convention in Hans Reichenbach’s
Philosophy of Space 109
VIII
ROBERTRYNASIEWICZ:Reichenbach’s of Simultaneity
in Historical and Philosophical Perspective 121
IV. OTHER PROPONENTS AND PERIPHERY
JUHAMANNINEN:Towards a Physicalistic Attitude 133
WOLFGANGHUEMER: Logical Empiricism and Phenomenology:
Felix Kaufmann 151
ARTURKOTERSKI: Béla von Juhos and the Concept of “Konstatierungen” 163
PAOLOMANCOSU / MATHIEUMARION:Wittgenstein’s Constructivization
of Euler’s Proof of the Infinity of Primes 171
GRACIELADEPIERRIS: Quine’s Historical Argument for Epistemology
Naturalized 189
V. UNITYANDPLURALITY
ELLIOTTSOBER: Two Uses of Unification 205
CHRISTOPHERHITCHCOCK:Unity and Plurality in the Concept of
Causation 217
DIEDERICKRAVEN:Edgar Zilsel’s Research Programme: Unity of Science
as an Empirical Problem 225
VI. CONTEXTSOF SCIENCE
GREGORSCHIEMANN: Criticizing a Difference of Contexts –
On Reichenbach’s Distinction between “Context of Discovery”
and “Context of Justification” 237
GIORAHON:Contextualizing an Epistemological Issue:
the Case of Error in Experiment 253
JUTTA SCHICKORE: The Contexts of Scientific Justification.
Some Reflections on the Relation Between Epistemological
Contextualism and Philosophy of Science 265
IX
VII. EPISTEMOLOGY
DANIELCOHNITZ: Modal Skepticism. Philosophical Thought Experiments
and Modal Epistemology 281
F.O. ENGLER: Structure and Heuristic: in Praise of Structural Realism
in the Case of Niels Bohr 297
VIII. ETHICS
UWECZANIERA: The Neutrality of Meta-Ethics Revisited – How to Draw
on Einstein and the Vienna Circle in Developing an Adequate Account
of Morals 313
IX. WOMEN OFLOGICALEMPIRICISM
DAGMAR BORCHERS: No Woman, no Try? – Else Frenkel-Brunswik and
the Project of Integrating Psychoanalysis into the Unity of Science 323
MICHAELBEANEY:Susan Stebbing on Cambridge and Vienna Analysis 339
NIKOLAY MILKOV: Susan Stebbing’s Criticism of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus 351
ADELHEID HAMACHER-HERMES: Rose Rand: a Woman in Logic 365
B. GENERAL PART
REPORT – DOCUMENTATION
OLESSIANAZAROVA:LogicalPositivisminRussia 381
X
REVIEWS
Ernst Mach’s Vienna 1895-1930 or Phenomenalism as Philosophy of
Science. Editedby John Blackmore, Ryoichi Itagaki and Setsuko
Tanaka. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht 2001.
(Erik Banks) 389
Herbert Hochberg, The Positivist and the Ontologist. Bergmann, Carnap
and Logical Realism, Rodopi: Amsterdam/Atlanta 2001.
(Erwin Tegtmeier) 393
Liliana Albertazzi / Dale Jacquette / Roberto Poli (eds.), The School of
Alexius Meinong (= Western philosophy series 57), Aldershot et al.:
Ashgate, 2001.
(Maria Reicher) 397
M. Ferrari / I.-O. Stamatescu (eds.), Symbol and Physical Knowledge.
On the Conceptual Structure of Physics, Springer: Berlin 2002.
(Thomas Mormann) 401
Uwe Czaniera, Gibt es moralisches Wissen? Die Kognitivismusdebatte
in der analytischen Moralphilosophie, Mentis: Paderborn 2001.
(Gabriele Mras) 406
ACTIVITIESOFTHEINSTITUTEVIENNACIRCLE
Activities 2002 411
Preview 2003 414
OBITUARY
Eugene T. Gadol (1920-2000)
(Friedrich St adler) 417
Index of Names 419