Definition of Logical Empiricism / Positivism

Lilén gomez | Dec. 2021
Philosophy training

As its name indicates, it is a current that is part of the tradition empiricist, among whose most important representatives is David Hume (1711-1776). Logical empiricism represents a "return to Hume" insofar as it opposes the tradition started by Immanuel Kant, assuming an antimetaphysical position: it is only possible to know what we have experience. In this sense, he rejects the possibility of synthetic a priori judgments, the central thesis of the philosophy Kantian.

The Circle Vienna not only collects the inheritance Hume's empiricist, but is influenced by the logicism of the mathematician Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) and Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), whose members take logical analysis as a method philosophical. Logic would make it possible to refine the philosophy of unsolvable philosophical pseudo-problems, which affected classical empiricism to some extent. On the other hand, they are influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), who affirmed that the only task of philosophy was the logical analysis of scientific discourses.

The scientific conception of the world

In its Manifesto (1929), the Vienna Circle enunciates the program of logical empiricism. In the first place, the difference between the thought and the metaphysical use of language, and the research antimetaphysics of the facts, namely, verificationism. The metaphysics it is thus associated with obscurantism. In turn, logical empiricists recognize the heritage of classical empiricism, however, they reject its more "psychologist" side. and they propose to replace it with a positivist position, that is, by a return to what is given in the facts, as we mentioned before.

In the second instance, the objective of the scientific conception of the world is formulated to achieve a unified science, it is that is, to harmonize the achievements of individual researchers in the different fields of science, under a language common. It is, we could say, a philosophical reaction to the fragmentation of the scientific field of the time and the incommensurability of the languages ​​between the different disciplines.

From there, arises the search for a neutral formula system, a total system of concepts, freed from the problems of natural (non-scientific) languages. He proposes, then, a reform of the established scientific language, as a means to achieve that goal: to achieve the unification of science through unifying the language of science. The appropriate method for this is logical analysis, which allows us to purify languages ​​of all metaphysical biases, in such a way that it opens up the possibility of constructing an empiricist language.

In turn, the clarification of traditional philosophical problems through logical analysis leads, on the one hand, to to unmask them as pseudo-problems and, on the other hand, to transform them into genuine empirical problems, to submit them to the judgment of the empirical sciences. Thus, for example, when faced with the statement "there is no God", one should not answer for the truth or falsity of the thesis, but rather ask "what does that statement mean?

Thus, in synthesis, the positivism Logical aims to achieve a unified science, through a reform of scientific language, through logical analysis. It is characterized by two fundamental features: it is empiricist and positivist, that is, it only considers knowledge as knowledge experience that is based on what is immediately given - with this the criterion of demarcation of the scientific content is established legitimate-; and is distinguished by application of a method, namely logical analysis.

Logical empiricism in history

Strictly speaking, the project of the scientific conception of the world was not fully carried out, since it gradually became unveiled as a task, but as an impossible, not always desirable one. From now on, the positions of its members were acquiring nuances regarding the possibility of a purely observational language, which in no way appealed to objectionable notions such as "Metaphysical".

To a greater or lesser extent, it is impossible to define all the concepts in our language and, simultaneously, refer them to observable entities through experience. Thus, the project of logical empiricism was transforming itself throughout the work of its founders.

Bibliography

Ernst Mach Association (2002). The scientific conception of the world: the Vienna Circle. Networks Vol. 9 (No. 18), 105-149.