Logical positivism refers to a philosophical perspective that focuses on logical reasoning and scientific verification. According to logical positivists, the only meaningful statements are those that can be tested and verified through empirical evidence. This perspective rejects claims that cannot be proven or disproven scientifically, such as ethical or metaphysical claims. It emphasizes the importance of objectivity and the scientific method in understanding the world.
Full definition
Although Whitehead is reacting primarily to the popularity
of logical positivism during the early part of the century, he also takes to task the presupposition that the method of philosophy should lead to «premises which are severally clear, distinct, and certain; and to erect upon those premises a deductive system of thought» (PR 8).
This frustrating dynamic rests, for MacIntyre, on the same hidden catastrophe that led to our current moral cave - dwelling:
although logical positivism as a philosophical movement has collapsed, the liberal culture still takes morality to assert feelings and opinions.
My analogy was attempting to suggest an incommensurate gap between
rational logical positivism (on the one hand) and the kind beyond literal and metaphorical thinking that aims at representing — well, religious faith, for sure, and all sorts of varied artistic representing.
At the time Whitehead was writing Process and Reality idealist systems were under attack on methodological grounds, first by C. E. Moore as violating the prescriptions of common sense, then by the school of
logical positivism represented chiefly by Schlick, Carnap, and Ayer.
For decades, Hartshorne and Weiss have tenaciously clung to their definite convictions that metaphysics is the main business of philosophy, despite almost overwhelming opposition from the powerful camps of
American logical positivism, linguistic analysis, and their allies.
We will note three areas which serve to highlight the journey back
from logical positivism and which also show that our underlying common sense does not itself rule out the spiritual.
His own experience as an undergraduate in the heyday of
logical positivism raised serious questions about the possibility of the meaningfulness of moral and religious language.
Although members of this tradition1 have rejected a
thoroughgoing logical positivism, their position with respect to fundamental issues in the philosophy of science is in varying degrees indebted to positivistic doctrines.
This shift is indicative of a development in philosophy called empiricism and
then logical positivism in the 1930's, which includes the belief that only analytic and observational statements are meaningful.
So following this level of idiotic level of
logical positivism..
But the door wasn't Christ; it was
logical positivism, which asserted that only scientifically verifiable statements can be considered «true.»
There are, first of all, differences in emphasis as to whether the subject or the object is the more real — as in rationalism and empiricism, idealism and materialism, personalism and
logical positivism.
The presentness of the I - Thou relation is also fatal to the attempt of
logical positivism to relegate ethics, religion, and poetry to subjective emotion without real knowledge value.
In this work Ayer propounded «
logical positivism «1 with his «principle of verifiability».
And the kind of philosophy that was coming to prominence —
logical positivism and then ordinary language analysis — was bound to seem less engaging to one with Lewis's long - standing metaphysical interests.
Diamond's philosophical theology following the rejection of Barthian dogmatics and
logical positivism.
When the kid asks his Sunday School class: «Can an omnipotent God make a rock too big for Him to lift» — thinking he has logically confounded their beliefs, he is demonstrating this literalist / non-literalist confusion and if he causes enough commotion he is likely to end up a refugee from the whole tradition, wonderfully proud of his atheism and
logical positivism.
The intellectual criticism of our time that bothered me... was
logical positivism and popular forms of positivism that said that science was the only form of knowing.»
Heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and the philosophical tradition of
Logical Positivism (the idea that if something is not able to be judged true or false, then we are rationally compelled to ignore it as irrelevant), much of the modern Church has bought into the belief that the truth of Christianity should be treated like any other set of factual claims, and that people of faith can somehow rationally observe ultimate truth with a level of personal detachment and objectivity.
Philosophically, such a picture represents a return to the division of labor that marked the heyday of
logical positivism, according to which science deals with matters of fact and religion deals with meaning and values.
Judging from press reports and web page announcements, the «spirituality» on display at this event was one that
logical positivism's long legacy has helped to promote.
To the extent that many inquiring minds still operate within the implicit confines of
logical positivism, or without any conceptual illumination at all, Whitehead's philosophy has much to offer those who seek clarity on these matters even while mistrusting it.
There was the whole philosophical movement of
logical positivism, which said that if you can't see it, it doesn't exist; now we've seen atoms with electron microscopes.
Rudolf Carnap (one of the founders of
logical positivism) used to quote from Heidegger to illustrate this: «Nihilation is neither an annihilation of what - is, nor does it spring from negation... nothing annihilates itself.»
Rationalism took the form of
logical positivism and now linguistic analysis, while romanticism continued as existentialism, represented by Kierkegaard and Sartre.
They are the people who are comfortable with, and advocate,
logical positivism.
The underlying theme of the essay is redolent of
logical positivism and that is fine up to a point.