Logical Empiricism and the Physical Sciences

Logical Empiricism and the Physical Sciences
Author: Sebastian Lutz
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 443
Release: 2021-04-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429771169

This volume has two primary aims: to trace the traditions and changes in methods, concepts, and ideas that brought forth the logical empiricists’ philosophy of physics and to present and analyze the logical empiricists’ various and occasionally contrary ideas about the physical sciences and their philosophical relevance. These original chapters discuss these developments in their original contexts and social and institutional environments, thus showing the various fruitful conceptions and philosophies behind the history of 20th-century philosophy of science. Logical Empiricism and the Natural Sciences is divided into three thematic sections. Part I surveys the influences on logical empiricism’s philosophy of science and physics. It features chapters on Maxwell’s role in the worldview of logical empiricism, on Reichenbach’s account of objectivity, on the impact of Poincaré on Neurath’s early views on scientific method, Frank’s exchanges with Einstein about philosophy of physics, and on the forgotten role of Kurt Grelling. Part II focuses on specific physical theories, including Carnap’s and Reichenbach’s positions on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Reichenbach’s critique of unified field theory, and the logical empiricists’ reactions to quantum mechanics. The third and final group of chapters widens the scope to philosophy of science and physics in general. It includes contributions on von Mises’ frequentism; Frank’s account of concept formation and confirmation; and the interrelations between Nagel’s, Feigl’s, and Hempel’s versions of logical empiricism. This book offers a comprehensive account of the logical empiricists’ philosophy of physics. It is a valuable resource for researchers interested in the history and philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, and the history of analytic philosophy.

On Theories

On Theories
Author: William Demopoulos
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2021-12-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0674237579

A renowned philosopherÕs final work, illuminating how the logical empiricist tradition has failed to appreciate the role of actual experiments in forming its philosophy of science. The logical empiricist treatment of physics dominated twentieth-century philosophy of science. But the logical empiricist tradition, for all it accomplished, does not do justice to the way in which empirical evidence functions in modern physics. In his final work, the late philosopher of science William Demopoulos contends that philosophers have failed to provide an adequate epistemology of science because they have failed to appreciate the tightly woven character of theory and evidence. As a consequence, theory comes apart from evidence. This trouble is nowhere more evident than in theorizing about particle and quantum physics. Arguing that we must consider actual experiments as they have unfolded across history, Demopoulos provides a new epistemology of theories and evidence, albeit one that stands on the shoulders of giants. On Theories finds clarity in Isaac NewtonÕs suspicion of mere Òhypotheses.Ó NewtonÕs methodology lies in the background of Jean PerrinÕs experimental investigations of molecular reality and of the subatomic investigations of J. J. Thomson and Robert Millikan. Demopoulos extends this account to offer novel insights into the distinctive nature of quantum reality, where a logico-mathematical reconstruction of Bohrian complementarity meets John Stewart BellÕs empirical analysis of EinsteinÕs Òlocal realism.Ó On Theories ultimately provides a new interpretation of quantum probabilities as themselves objectively representing empirical reality.

The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism

The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism
Author: Alan Richardson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 624
Release: 2007-09-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1139826433

If there is a movement or school that epitomizes analytic philosophy in the middle of the twentieth century, it is logical empiricism. Logical empiricists created a scientifically and technically informed philosophy of science, established mathematical logic as a topic in and tool for philosophy, and initiated the project of formal semantics. Accounts of analytic philosophy written in the middle of the twentieth century gave logical empiricism a central place in the project. The second wave of interpretative accounts was constructed to show how philosophy should progress, or had progressed, beyond logical empiricism. The essays survey the formative stages of logical empiricism in central Europe and its acculturation in North America, discussing its main topics, and achievements and failures, in different areas of philosophy of science, and assessing its influence on philosophy, past, present, and future.

Logical Empiricism and the Special Sciences

Logical Empiricism and the Special Sciences
Author: Sahotra Sarkar
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 374
Release: 1996
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780815322658

Twenty-nine collected essays represent a critical history of Shakespeare's play as text and as theater, beginning with Samuel Johnson in 1765, and ending with a review of the Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1991. The criticism centers on three aspects of the play: the love/friendship debate.

The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel

The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel
Author: Carl G. Hempel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2001-01-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0195343875

Editor James Fetzer presents an analytical and historical introduction and a comprehensive bibliography together with selections of many of Carl G. Hempel's most important studies to give students and scholars an ideal opportunity to appreciate the enduring contributions of one of the most influential philosophers of science of the 20th century.

Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion

Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion
Author: Robert N. McCauley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2017-09-07
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1350030325

Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson are considered the founders of the field of the cognitive science of religion. Since its inception over twenty years ago, the cognitive science of religion has raised questions about the philosophical foundations and implications of such a scientific approach. This volume from McCauley, including chapters co-authored by Lawson, is the first book-length project to focus on such questions, resulting in a compelling volume that addresses fundamental questions that any scholar of religion should ask. The essays collected in this volume are those that initially defined this scientific field for the study of religion. These essays deal with issues of methodology, reductionism, resistance to the scientific study of religion, and other criticisms that have been lodged against the cognitive science of religion. The new final chapter sees McCauley reflect on developments in this field since its founding. Tackling these debates head on and in one place for the first time, this volume belongs on the shelf of every researcher interested in this now established approach to the study of religion within a range of disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, anthropology and the psychology of religion.

The Logic of Scientific Discovery

The Logic of Scientific Discovery
Author: Karl Popper
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2005-11-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134470029

Described by the philosopher A.J. Ayer as a work of 'great originality and power', this book revolutionized contemporary thinking on science and knowledge. Ideas such as the now legendary doctrine of 'falsificationism' electrified the scientific community, influencing even working scientists, as well as post-war philosophy. This astonishing work ranks alongside The Open Society and Its Enemies as one of Popper's most enduring books and contains insights and arguments that demand to be read to this day.

Logical Positivism

Logical Positivism
Author: Alfred Jules Ayer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 468
Release: 1959
Genre: Logical positivism
ISBN: 0029011302

Scientism

Scientism
Author: Tom Sorell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2013-07-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 113484123X

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Between Rationalism and Empiricism

Between Rationalism and Empiricism
Author: Erhard Scheibe
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 648
Release: 2002-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780387985206

Scheibe is one of the most important philosophers of science in Germany. He has written extensively on all the problems that confront the philosophy of physics: rationalism vs. empiricism; reductionism; the foundations of quantum mechanics; space-time, and much more. Since little of his work has been translated into English, he is not yet well known internationally. However, this collection of some 40 of his papers will remedy this unfortunate situation.