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An Educational Application of Resources of the Unity of Science Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Lee Byrne
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Extract

The Unity of Science movement is directed primarily toward the further advancement of science, but a second phase is entered when the assessment of its significance for various aspects of civilization is undertaken. In this second phase would fall investigations of the utility of its resources in relation to educational problems.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , April 1940 , pp. 241 - 262
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association 1940

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References

1 Revision of a paper read before the Logic of Science Discussion Group, University of Chicago, May 31, 1939.

2 Some points of application are indicated in an article in School and Society, Vol. 50 (No. 1302) pp. 758 ff.; (abstract in Journal of Unified Science IX, pp. 143 ff.)

3 Mention may be made of investigations of the “higher mental processes”; the beginnings of an interest in “semantics” among teachers of English; tests in “thinking”; Fawcett's study of the nature of proof (1938 Mathematics Teachers Yearbook); interest in “propaganda analysis”; Loomis' comments on “modern methods” (Bull. Dept. Sec. Sch. Prin., Oct. 1938); study in the logical aspects of “educational measurement”.

4 Carnap's Abriss der Logistik appeared in 1929; Erkenntnis began publication in 1931; Philosophy of Science appeared in 1934. International Congresses for the Unity of Science have been held annually since 1935; the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science began publication in 1938.

5 See R. Carnap in Encyclopedia, Vol. I, Nos. 1 and 3. On this Encyclopedia see Notes and References at end of paper.

6 See L. Bloomfield in Encyclopedia, Vol. I, No. 4.

7 See C. W. Morris in Encyclopedia, Vol. I, No. 2.

8 Morris, op. cit.

9 We may mention American pragmatism and realism, British realism and analytic philosophy, and the logical empiricism of central Europe, which, however, do not exhaust the list.

10 See A. C. Benjamin, The Logical Structure of Science, p. 7, 242.

11 On the distinction of syntactical, semantic and pragmatic see R. Carnap in Encyclopedia, Vol. I, No. 3, pp. 5-8, 16-18.

12 These are, of course, the universal statements or laws, in connection with which the term “induction” has often been used. The problem of deduction is exemplified if we try to find some statement which can be deduced from a class of statements C. The problem of inverse deduction in pure form would be exemplified if we merely tried to find a class of statements C from which a given statement could be deduced, without regard to the question whether the statements C were true or false; the result could then be used as an hypothesis.

13 Loc. cit. pp. 61-67.

14 It is hardly necessary to say that the term “axiom” is not now used to mean necessary or a priori truth, but merely more general hypotheses or laws from which others can be deduced, and regarding the selection of which there is no compulsory basis of choice except that they be able to serve the purpose intended. If an axiomatization can be carried out at all, it can be carried out in more than one way, and different axiomatizations of the same territory may have different points of interest and advantage and lead to different discoveries or constitute different pathways to higher unification. For concepts the situation is analogous as regards freedom of choice of the primitive or undefined.

15 The resemblance to ideas of Keyser and of Sheffer is apparent.

16 As applied to a single science we are using the term “unitary view” to refer to this science as though a self-sufficient or self-contained affair. At a later point in the paper we shall direct attention to the matter of the external relations of sciences with other aspects of civilization, including their applications.

17 Explained in Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 52 ff.

18 Exact determination of this concept in its most general form is given in Carnap's Notes for Symbolic Logic (mimeographed), Univ. of Chicago Bookstore (1937), Section 13; in more usual and slightly less general sense in his Abriss der Logistik, Section 22 c; syntactical design (Gestalt) and form are explained in his Logical Syntax of Language, pp. 15 and 16.

19 The discussion in this section directly reflects, though imperfectly, ideas expressed by C. W. Morris in Kenyon Review (Gambier, Ohio), autumn, 1939, and elsewhere.

See also his article in Progressive Education Booklet No. 14 (Am. Edu. Press, Columbus, O.).

20 For example, those concerned with literature and the arts may in some instances be unsympathetic toward unification plans in which the emphasis appears to be primarily scientific; others may make it a point of objection that full unification in the wider territory involves passing beyond the scientific to philosophical considerations; others may wish to philosophize but object to a limitation of choice to the scientifically oriented philosophies, which are the ones which are directly affiliated with the Unity of Science movement.