Logical positivism: philosophy and principles

Logical positivism (also known as logical empiricism) was a philosophical movement that began in Vienna, Austria during the 1920s, coming to public attention in 1929 with the publication of a manifesto called Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis (The Scientific World-Conception. The Vienna Circle) (Richardson & Uebel 13). The manifesto was dedicated to Moritz Schlick, a leading figure of logical positivism and the ostensible leader of the Vienna Circle, and was signed by Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Hans Hahn and Herbert Feigl (13). "Vienna Circle" was decided on as a name because Neurath thought that it evoked nice associations with the Vienna woods and the Viennese waltz (13). This publication is important when looking at the history of logical positivism because it was with this manifesto that the "public phase" of the Vienna Circle began, branching out to other countries in Europe as well as to the English-speaking world (14).

Logical positivism is mainly interested in the logical analysis of scientific knowledge, essentially claiming that metaphysics should be seen as completely worthless (the same holding true for other areas such as religion and ethics). In the manifesto, the term scientific "world-conception" (Weltauffassung) proposed to illustrate a significant contrast with the metaphysically informed German "worldview (Weltanschauuung) and to put emphasis on its scientific orientation (Richardson & Uebel 14). This is precisely what was done. Positivism, in general, is a type of method that considers experience to be from which data should come rather than from metaphysical ideas or notions. Logical positivism, however, is different from that of just positivism because logical positivism believes that the definitive foundation of knowledge should be founded on public experiences that are verifiable rather that personal ones. In logical positivism, math, logic and science are the fields in which we can derive logic. Some of the most prominent figures of logical positivism are Rudolf Carnap, Friedrich Waismann, Carl Gustav Hempel and Hans Hahn -- among others (Murzi 1).

Many believe that logical positivism started out as an empiricist or verificationist movement in the tradition of Hume, Mach, and Russell's external world program (Friedman 18).

In looking back to history preceding logical positivism, Einstein's theory of relativity had a lot of impact on logical positivism and its ideas. The "founding fathers" of logical positivism were interested in close examination of the philosophical worthiness of Einstein's theory (Murzi 1). Several of the leading figures of logical positivism wrote essays on the theory and others were present at Einstein's lectures at universities. This attention was all in hopes of finding some significance -- philosophically speaking -- in the theory. From this it is plain to see that the positivists didn't come to develop straight down from Hume and Mach (via Russell and Wittgenstein). What seems almost equally significant is an evolution from German neo-Kantianism and neo-idealism via Hilbert and Einstein (19). Schlick's writings on Einstein's theory seem to point definitively to this.

Logical positivism had grown as a movement by the 1930s was known all over Europe and by the 1940s and 50s as well as in the United States. The individuals in the movement were very interested in making sure that its ideas were being spread. Logical positivists of the era were known for favoring reform, being egalitarian, and sometimes even being socialist -- which was not favored by the Nazis (Murzi 1). Because of this, when Hitler came to power in 1933, several of these logical positivists were oppressed and were forced to leave Austria for Germany. Some of the figures were even murdered such as were Kurt Grelling and Moritz Schlick (1).

Because logical positivism is considered a movement and not a set of principles or rules, the leaders as well as the views changed quite significantly over history. It wasn't just that the views shifted a bit either; these views changed radically in some cases. Just like with any movement, time and people changed their ideas and thus there really isn't any way to connect the different positions to all the different leaders of the movement. Despite the fact that these visions varied greatly, there was one common interest and that was an interest in scientific methodology and how science could aid in helping to reform society as a whole. Inside of the scientific methodology, what concerned the logical positivists was finding a worthy role for logic and to help find a way to understand philosophy in terms of how it could be part of the scientific endeavor.

The questions begging to be answered in natural science, in general, pertain to the sources of scientific knowledge. For example, one of those questions would be: Can science rest on something different from experience? And if science does come down to rest on experience, then to what extent? Also, can science ever relate to the mystical? According to logical positivism, using its most well-known tenet, the verifiability principle, the validity and meaning of something rests upon whether it can be verified or not. This is what led to a fundamental attack against metaphysical, religion, and ethics as well. The logical positivists considered these things to be systems that made a lot of assumptions and statements about things that could never be verified. While the logical positivists didn't deny that people made these statements or assumptions for a reason, they largely believed that they made them based upon feelings and emotions -- but not logic.