Philosophy: Logical Positivism, epistemology and empiricism

Here is a short summary of the recent "In Our Time" podcast on Logical Positivism from the BBC:

The Vienna Circle was a group of philosophically-trained scientists and scientifically-trained philosophers, who met on Thursdays, in Vienna, in the years after the First World War. Out of their meetings there emerged a revolutionary new doctrine. It was called Logical Positivism - and it rejected great swathes of earlier philosophy, from meditations on the existence of God to declarations on the nature of History, as utterly meaningless.

The Logical Positivists were trying to remould philosophy in a world turned upside down not just by war, but by major advances in science: their hero was not Descartes or Hegel but Albert Einstein. When the Nazis took power, they fled to England and America, where their ideas put down new roots, and went on to have a profound impact.

Contributors:

• Barry Smith, Professor of Philosophy at the University of London
  
• Nancy Cartwright, Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics
  
• Thomas Uebel, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manchester

I have always slightly sceptical about pure philosophy as a pure abstract topic in it's own, and according to Logical Positivism  it turns out I would be right and Nadjib would be wrong ;-)

Here is a short summary of this branch of philosophy from wikipedia:

Logical positivism (also called logical empiricism and neo-positivism) is a school of philosophy that combines empiricism, the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world, with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions in epistemology.

The podcast was really interested, there are many fascinating themes and background details which gave some depth of understanding to this intellectual movement:

• Under Logical Positivism, philosophy becomes a "2nd order" subject i.e. mathematical philosophy, legal philosophy, ethical philosophy, philosophy of natural sciences, ... 
  
• Many of the proponents of Logical Positivism were inspired by the progress in maths, physics, technology, social sciences ...
  
• They want to transform society (this was just after World War I)
  
• Emphasis on clear thinking and logic
  
• Hegalian philosophy was nonsense
  
• They were empiricist with left of centre politics 
  
• With rise of the Nazi's in the 1930s the movement moved from Vienna to Oxford (there was a group of seven who meet weekly at All Souls)
  

There was a lot more to this radio program. One of the advantages with the podcast version of In Our Time, is that you can listen to the same program a few times to ensure you have fully understood. 

This was a particularly good program for "repeat listening" as the contributors, who all spoke beautiful English, were so enthusiastic about the topic. A highlight of this is when they start to go "booh horah" in unison, while explain system of morals reduced to logic (it wasn't meant to be taken seriously it was more of  an interesting concept):

Ayer is a big fan of Maths and Science because they are meaningful. He actually hated philosophy and would much rather have been a scientist; this is obvious from his declaration that 'Philosophy is the handmaiden of science'. It is rumoured that Ayer actually put this into practice and waited on the science professors teaching proper meaningful subjects during his time at Oxford University.

His book shows that Ayer is also a big fan of Facts. According to Ayer, ethical statements are not facts. Instead they express emotions. This led to his theory of emotivism or the Boo-Hurrah theory.

Ayer's analysis of moral statements: Normal person: Murder is wrong. Emotivist: Murder - boo!

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/A.J._Ayer

NB Here is the "New Oxford American" dictionary entry for epistemology and empiricism: 

epistemology |iˌpistəˈmäləjē|

noun Philosophy

the theory of knowledge, esp. with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.

DERIVATIVES

epistemological |-məˈläjikəl| |əˈˈpɪstəməˈlɑdʒəkəl| |-məˈlɒdʒɪk(ə)l| adjective

epistemologically |-məˈläjik(ə)lē| |əˈˈpɪstəməˈlɑdʒək(ə)li| |-məˈlɒdʒɪk(ə)li| adverb

epistemologist |-jist| |əˈpɪstəˈmɑlədʒ1st| |ɛˈpɪstəˈmɑlədʒəst| |iˈpɪstəˈmɑlədʒəst| noun

ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Greek epistēmē ‘knowledge,’ from epistasthai ‘know, know how to do.’

empiricism |emˈpirəˌsizəm|

noun Philosophy

the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science, it developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, expounded in particular by John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. Compare with phenomenalism .

• practice based on experiment and observation.

• dated ignorant or unscientific practice; quackery.

DERIVATIVES

empiricist |əmˈpɪrəsəst| |ɛmˈpɪrəsəst| noun & adjective