Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:22:21.666Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Engineering Philosophy of Science: American Pragmatism and Logical Empiricism in the 1930s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Alan W. Richardson
Alan W. Richardson*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
*
Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of Philosophy, 1866 Main Mall–E370, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay examines logical empiricism and American pragmatism, arguing that American philosophy's embrace of logical empiricism in the 1930s was not a turning away from Dewey's pragmatism. It places both movements within scientific philosophy and finds two key points on which they agreed: their revolutionary ambitions and their social engineering sensibility. The essay suggests that the disagreement over emotivism in ethics should be placed within the context of a larger issue on which the movements disagreed: demarcationism and imperialism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 69 , Issue S3 , September 2002 , pp. S36 - S47
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cohen, Morris R. (1930), “Vision and Technique in Philosophy”, Vision and Technique in Philosophy 39:127–152.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. ([1920] 1948), Reconstruction in Philosophy, Enlarged ed. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Dewey, John (1938), Logic: A Theory of Inquiry. New York: Holt.Google Scholar
Dewey, John (1939), “Experience, Knowledge and Value: A Rejoinder”, in Schilpp, P. A. (ed.), The Philosophy of John Dewey. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 515–608.Google Scholar
Dewey, John ([1944] 1970), A Theory of Valuation, in Neurath, Otto, Carnap, Rudolf, and Morris, Charles (eds.), Foundations of the Unity of Science, Vol 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 379–447.Google Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. (1996), “From wissenschaftliche Philosophie to Philosophy of Science”, in Giere, Ronald N. and Richardson, Alan W. (eds.), Origins of Logical Empiricism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 335–354.Google Scholar
Hollinger, David (1975), Morris R. Cohen and the Scientific Ideal. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hollinger, David (1996), Science, Jews, and Secular Culture. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, C. I. (1970), “Logical Positivism and Pragmatism”, in Goheen, John D. and Motherhead, John L. Jr. (eds.), The Collected Papers of Clarence Irving Lewis. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 92–112.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, Arthur O. (1908), “The Thirteen Pragmatisms”, The Thirteen Pragmatisms 5:1–12, 29–39.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, Arthur O. (1917), “On Some Conditions of Progress in Philosophy”, On Some Conditions of Progress in Philosophy 26:123–163.Google Scholar
Nagel, Ernest (1936), “Impressions and Appraisals of Analytic Philosophy in Europe. I”, Impressions and Appraisals of Analytic Philosophy in Europe. I 33:5–24.Google Scholar
Neurath, Otto ([1928] 1973), “Personal Life and Class Struggle”, in Neurath, Marie and Cohen, Robert S. (eds.), Empiricism and Sociology. Dordrecht: Reidel, 214–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, W. V. (1980), “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”, in From a Logical Point of View, 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 20–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, Alan (1997), “Toward a History of Scientific Philosophy”, Toward a History of Scientific Philosophy 5:418–451.Google Scholar
Richardson, Alan (2000), “Science as Will and Representation: Carnap, Reichenbach, and the Sociology of Science”, Science as Will and Representation: Carnap, Reichenbach, and the Sociology of Science 67:S152–S163.Google Scholar
Richardson, Alan (forthcoming a), “Logical Empiricism, American Pragmatism, and the Fate of Scientific Philosophy in North America”, in Hardcastle, Gary and Richardson, Alan (eds.), Logical Empiricism in North America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Richardson, Alan (forthcoming b), “Tolerance, Internationalism, and Scientific Community in Philosophy: Political Themes in Philosophy of Science, Past and Present”, in Stadler, Friedrich and Heidelberger, Michael (eds.), Philosophy of Science and Politics. Vienna: Springer.Google Scholar
Russell, Bertrand ([1914] 1993), Our Knowledge of the External World. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schlick, Moritz ([1930/1931] 1959), “The Turning Point in Philosophy”, in Ayer, A. J. (ed.), Logical Positivism. New York: The Free Press, 53–59.Google Scholar
Wilson, Daniel J. (1990), Science, Community, and the Transformation of American Philosophy, 1860–1930. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar