ABSTRACT

Logical empiricism is a philosophical movement that flourished in the 1920s and 30s in Central Europe and in the 1940s and 50s in the United States. With its stated ambition to comprehend the revolutionary advances in the empirical and formal sciences of their day and to confront anti-modernist challenges to scientific reason itself, logical empiricism was never uncontroversial. Uniting key thinkers who often disagreed with one another but shared the aim to conceive of philosophy as part of the scientific enterprise, it left a rich and varied legacy that has only begun to be explored relatively recently.

The Routledge Handbook of Logical Empiricism is an outstanding reference source to this challenging subject area, and the first collection of its kind. Comprising 41 chapters written by an international and interdisciplinary team of contributors, the Handbook is organized into four clear parts:

  • The Cultural, Scientific and Philosophical Context and the Development of Logical Empiricism
  • Characteristic Theses of and Specific Issues in Logical Empiricism
  • Relations to Philosophical Contemporaries
  • Leading Post-Positivist Criticisms and Legacy

Essential reading for students and researchers in the history of twentieth-century philosophy, especially the history of analytical philosophy and the history of philosophy of science, the Handbook will also be of interest to those working in related areas of philosophy influenced by this important movement, including metaphysics and epistemology, philosophy of mind and philosophy of language.

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

part I|123 pages

The cultural, scientific, and philosophical context and the development of logical empiricism

part II|139 pages

Characteristic theses of and specific issues in logical empiricism

chapter 16|11 pages

Verificationism

chapter 17|8 pages

Noncognitivism

chapter 18|9 pages

The unity of science

chapter 21|8 pages

The relative a priori

chapter 22|9 pages

Nonstandard logicism

chapter 23|9 pages

Probability in logical empiricism

chapter 26|9 pages

Hempel and confirmation theory

chapter 27|9 pages

Carnap and ontology

chapter 28|10 pages

Neurath on political economy

part III|66 pages

Relations to philosophical contemporaries

part IV|55 pages

Leading post-positivist criticisms and legacy