Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:19:30.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Large Scale Structure of Logical Empiricism: Unity of Science and the Elimination of Metaphysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Greg Frost-Arnold
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Two central and well-known philosophical goals of the logical empiricists are the unification of science and the elimination of metaphysics. Textual analysis shows, however, that these two apparently distinct planks of the logical empiricist party platform are actually intimately related. From the 1920s through 1950, one abiding criterion for judging whether an apparently declarative assertion or descriptive term is metaphysical is that that assertion or term cannot be incorporated into a language of unified science. I explore various versions of this criterion throughout the works of Carnap and Neurath.

Type
History of Philosophy of Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2005 , pp. 826 - 838
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

I must thank Laura Ruetsche, Jon Tsou, and Karen Frost-Arnold for extremely helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

References

Carnap, Rudolf ([1928] 1967), The Logical Structure of the World. Translated by George, Rolf. Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf ([1932] 1934), Unity of Science. Translated by Black, Max. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf ([1932] 1959), “The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language”, translated by Arthur Pap, in Ayer, A. J. (ed.), Logical Positivism. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 60–81.Google Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf ([1934] 1937), Logical Syntax of Language. Translated by Smeathon, Amethe. Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf ([1934] 1987), “On Protocol Sentences” (translated by Richard Creath and Richard Nollan), Nous 21:457–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf (1938), “Logical Foundations of the Unity of Science”, in International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Vol. 1, No. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 42–62.Google Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf ([1950] 1956), “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology”, in Meaning and Necessity, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Creath, Richard (1982), “Was Carnap a Complete Verificationist in the Aufbau?”, in Asquith, Peter D. and Nickles, Thomas (eds.), PSA 1982: Proceedings of the 1982 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 1. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, 384–393.Google Scholar
Creath, Richard (1996), “The Unity of Science: Carnap, Neurath, and Beyond”, in Galison, Peter Louis and Stump, David J. (eds.), The Disunity of Science: Boundaries, Contexts, and Power. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 417–427.Google Scholar
Frank, Philipp (1947), “The Institute for the Unity of Science: Its Background and Its Purpose”, The Institute for the Unity of Science: Its Background and Its Purpose 6:160–167Google Scholar
Friedman, Michael (1999), Reconsidering Logical Positivism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heyting, Arend ([1971] 1983), “Disputation”, in Benacerraf, Paul and Putnam, Hilary (eds.), Philosophy of Mathematics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 66–76.Google Scholar
Neurath, Otto (1938), “Unified Science as Encyclopedic Integration”, in International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Vol. 1, No. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1–27.Google Scholar
Neurath, Otto (1946), “Unity of Science Movement: After Six Years”, Unity of Science Movement: After Six Years 5:77–82.Google Scholar
Neurath, Otto (1983), Philosophical Papers. Translated and edited by Robert S. Cohen and Marie Neurath. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
Richardson, Alan (1992), “Metaphysics and Idealism in the Aufbau”, Metaphysics and Idealism in the Aufbau 43:45–72.Google Scholar
Richardson, Alan (1998), Carnap’s Construction of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schlick, Moritz ([1926] 1978), “Experience, Cognition, and Metaphysics”, in Mulder, Henk L. and B van de Velde-Schlick, B. F. (eds), Moritz Schlick: Philosophical Papers, Vol. 2. Dordrecht: Reidel, 99–111.Google Scholar
Suppes, Patrick (1978), “The Plurality of Science”, in Asquith, Peter D. and Hacking, Ian (eds.), PSA 1978: Proceedings of the 1978 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 2. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, 3–16.Google Scholar