Philosophy of Being and Knowledge

Philosophy of Language

Neopositivism

The foundational document of early Wittgensteinian philosophy was his "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus," which quickly gained worldwide acclaim and exerted a profound influence on philosophical discourse. In 1922, Professor Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) of the University of Vienna initiated a tradition of gathering every Thursday evening with his students to discuss pressing philosophical issues. This group, which included scholars such as Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970), Otto Neurath (1882-1945), Hans Hahn (1879-1934), Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953), and Alfred Ayer (1910-1989), became known as the Vienna Circle, and their philosophical stance was termed neopositivism, logical positivism, or logical empiricism. This movement played a crucial role in both the philosophy of language and the philosophy of science. The Vienna Circle meticulously examined Wittgenstein's Tractatus, making his logical atomism the starting point for their philosophical endeavors. While focusing on the philosophy of science, the members of the Vienna Circle applied methods of philosophical analysis of language to address scientific problems.

Neopositivists agreed with Russell and Wittgenstein that most philosophical problems arise from improper use of language. They categorized judgments into:

• Judgments with truth value: These are judgments whose truth value can be verified. Neopositivists believed that only what can be proven or verified exists. If a judgment’s truth value can be verified, it possesses one; if not, it does not. There are two types of judgments with verifiable truth values:

✵ Tautologies and contradictions: Judgments that are true (tautologies) or false (contradictions) due to their logical structure. For instance, "It is raining or it is not raining" is true regardless of the weather. This group also includes principles of mathematics and logic, which Kant referred to as analytical.

✵ Protocol sentences: Judgments that describe atomic facts. For example, "Copper is conductive" is a protocol sentence because it describes a fact that can be verified through experience, such as testing copper’s conductivity with electricity. Neopositivists termed this empirical verification of truth value as verification.

Judgments with truth value can be either true (e.g., "Copper is conductive") or false (e.g., "Cows fly"). To qualify for this group, a judgment must be empirically verifiable, regardless of the outcome of the verification. Science can test and reject false judgments, so even false judgments are not critical for science.

• Judgments without truth value: These are judgments whose truth cannot be empirically verified, meaning their truth value is unknown. For instance, the judgment "Love will save the world" cannot be empirically tested, making its truth value indeterminate. Such judgments pose problems that science cannot resolve, as they arise not from the complexity of the subject but from incorrect language use. Rudolf Carnap termed these as "pseudo-problems." Efforts should not be wasted on solving them, as science can never overcome them. They should first be removed from the language of science and then from everyday language, paving the way for a universal language of science.

Following these criteria, neopositivists rejected all metaphysical statements and discarded a vast array of questions that had preoccupied philosophers for centuries. Neopositivism narrowed the scope of philosophical discourse, and after the Vienna Circle’s active period ended, analytic philosophers returned to traditional philosophical problems, employing the method of language analysis.