History of Philosophy

Philosophy under fire: science and the irrational against philosophy Philosophy under fire: science and the irrational against philosophy. Positivism (A. Comte, J. S. Mill, the Vienna Circle) and philosophy of life (F. Nietzsche, H. Bergson, W.Dilthey))

Auguste Comte John Stuart Mill (1798-1857) (1806-1873)

Positivism of Comte and Mill („the first positivism”): • positive: relative, non-absolute; strict and certain; useful; organic and real; objective, factual • stages of social and intellectual evolution, the law of three phases in the development of sciences: theological, metaphysical, and scientific-positive correlated with developing social systems – social progress

• classification and hierarchy of sciences from the most general (simple) to the most specific (complex): inorganic physics (astronomy, earth science and chemistry) and organic physics (biology), new science: social physics sociology (social static, social dynamics)), no psychology as inner experience (introspection) cannot lead to scientific results; sciences based on knowledge of facts

• critique of metaphysics (mostly Aristotelian) non-factual speculations, any system of propositions with no empirical evidence is metaphysical Mill: 1. improvement of Bacon’s and Herschel’s theory of induction: • method of agreement: if two cases of a phenomenon share only one feature, that feature is their cause or their effect • method of difference: if a case in which a phenomenon occurs and one in which it does not differ by only one other feature, that feature is the cause, or a necessary part of the cause of the phenomenon, or it is its effect

• joint method of agreement and difference: this combines methods the first two methods • method of residues: if we subtract from a phenomenon what is already known as to be the effect of some antecedent events, the remainder is the result of the remaining antecedents • method of concomitant variations: phenomena that vary together are linked through some causal relationship.

2. development of personalities (natural resources) through education; higher and lower desires 3. liberty and aristocratic liberalism, essay On Liberty, representative government, limited electoral rights, no political parties

“The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him, must be calculated to produce evil to some one else. The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”

Positivism of Ernst Mach and Richard Avenarius („the second positivism”): Mach: scientific laws sum up experiences in a simplest and economic way; stream of impressions/perceptions; sciences describe ‘elements’ and their aggregates: ‘bodies’ given in impressions. Avenarius: ‘scientific philosophy’ = descriptions of experience free from unjustified (non-empirical) assumptions; no metaphysical concepts like absolute, self, cause, substance, atom; the idea of pure experience.

The Vienna Circle, logical positivism, neo-positivism Verificationists Moritz Schlick Rudolf Carnap Otto Neurath (1882-1936) (1891-1970) (1882-1945)

Logician Falsicationist Kurt Gödel Sir Karl Popper (1906-1978) (1902-1994)

• metaphysics, theology and ethics are sets of meaningless sentences expressing emotions and desires • unity of science • physicalism • what is not verified by experience is meaningless • verificationism – sentences are meaningful if they are verifiable or falsifiable by experience (non-analytically) • theory is verified, if it is possible to infer empirical propositions from theoretical sentences; empirical sentences or basic/protocol sentences are meaningful, because they directly describe experience

• falsificationism – theories cannot be effectively verified (the problem of induction) but they can be only falsified; the progress of scientific knowledge is an evolutionary process, where attempts at falsification of conjectures/tentative theories have a similar selective function as a natural selection mechanism in biological evolution; theories are better fitted, if put through the process of falsification; theories regarded as true can be falsified in future and refuted; if there are no possible falsifying empirical data or experiments, i.e. a theory is not falsifiable it is useless or at least is a heuristic tool.

The Berlin Circle, logical empiricism Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953), Kurt Grelling (1886- 1941/42), Carl G. Hempel (1905-1997) The Lvov-Warsaw School

The philosophy of life (Lebensphilosophie) Friedrich Nietzsche Henri Bergson Wilhelm Dilthey (1844-1900) (1859-1941) (1833-1911)

Nietzsche: • genealogy of morals: masters and slaves • critique of mass society and its culture • the idea of genius – Superman (Übermensch) vs. philistines • the will to power and life • revaluation of values: great individuals create of values • “God is dead” – moral and cultural consequences of secularisation: aesthetics instead of ethics

Bergson: • logic, concepts, intellect vs. life, reality, experience, the stream of consciousness; intuition not intellect; time as duration in subjective perception of time, anti-naturalism • creative evolution: criticism of Darwin’s theory of evolution, evolutionary dynamics determined by an élan vital, a ‘vital force’

Dilthey: • fundamental differences between sciences and humanities: explanation vs. interpretation (Verstehen); part and whole, individual and type • humanities are better justified than natural sciences: analytical psychology as a unifying study of the fundamentals of humanities • hermeneutics and the ‘hermeneutical circle’ • philosophy of humanities as philosophy of man • life