School · 1882–1989 CE
Logical empiricism
Logical empiricism joins the Vienna Circle, Berlin Society, and related interlocutors in projects that used logic and empiricism to clarify scientific knowledge and resist speculative metaphysics. The movement was internally diverse: its members disagreed over protocol statements, realism, conventionalism, probability, and unity of science.
Shared questions
- How can logical analysis clarify scientific language, evidence, and meaningful assertion?
- What, if anything, makes a statement empirically testable or metaphysically empty?
Internal disagreements
- Schlick’s foundational leanings, Neurath’s coherentism, Carnap’s linguistic frameworks, and Reichenbach’s probabilistic realism did not yield one doctrine.
Key texts
- The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle · 1929 — The Circle’s manifesto articulated its scientific-world-conception program.
- Language, Truth and Logic · 1936 — Ayer’s influential English-language presentation of logical positivist themes.