Pragmatisms and Logical Empiricisms: Response to Misak and Klein
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/jhap.v4i5.2947Abstract
This paper responds to the generous comments by Alexander Klein and Cheryl Misak on my “American Pragmatism and the Vienna Circle: The Early Years”. First, besides offering some clarification of my original thesis, I argue that Jerusalem was not liable to the anti-Spencerian criticisms by James that Klein adduces in the course of defending James against the charge of psychologism. Then I investigate the impact of Wittgenstein’s Ramsey-derived pragmatism, importantly foregrounded by Misak, on the Vienna Circle and argue that it was mainly limited to Schlick but not recognized as pragmatist, also leaving unaffected the impact of James’s pragmatism on Frank, Hahn and Neurath specified in my original paper. That said, Klein’s and Misak’s comments add significantly to our understanding of long-neglected transatlantic philosophical connections in the early twentieth century.
References
Carnap, Rudolf, 1928a. Der logische Aufbau der Welt. Berlin: Weltkreisverlag. Translated as The Logical Structure of the World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Repr. Chicago: Open Court, 2003.
———, 1928b/2003. Scheinprobleme in der Philosophie. Berlin: Bernary, 1928. Translated as “Pseudoproblems in Philosophy” in Carnap, The Logical Structure of the World, pp. 301–43. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Repr. Chicago: Open Court, 2003.
———, 1932/1959. “Überwindung der Metaphysik durch logische Analyse der Sprache.” Erkenntnis 2 (1932): 219–241. Translated as “The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language.” In Logical Positivism, edited by A. J. Ayer, pp. 60–81. New York: Free Press, 1959.
———, 1963. “Intellectual Autobiography.” In The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, edited by P. A. Schilpp, pp. 3–84. LaSalle, IL: Open Court.
Carus, A. W., 2007. Carnap and 20th Century Thought: Explication as Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Creath, Richard, 1982. “Was Carnap a Complete Verificationist in the Aufbau?” PSA 1982, vol. 1: 384–393.
Dewey, John, et al. 1909. Studies in Logical Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Reprinted in Essays in Experimental Logic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1916. Repr. New York: Dover, n.d.
Feigl, Herbert, 1950. “De Principiis Non Disputandum? On the Meaning and Limits of Justification.” In Philosophical Analysis, edited by M. Black. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Reprinted in Inquiries and Provocations, edited by R. S. Cohen, pp. 237–68. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1981.
Ferrari, Massimo, 2016. “William James and the Vienna Circle.” In Logical Empiricism and Pragmatism, edited by F. Stadler and S. Pihlstrom. Dordrecht: Springer.
Frank, Philipp, 1949. “Historical Introduction.” In Modern Science and its Philosophy, pp. 1–52. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Friedman, Michael, 1992. “Epistemology in the Aufbau.” Synthese 93: 15–57. Reprinted in Reconsidering Logical Positivism, pp. 114–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Hahn, Hans, 1933. Logik, Mathematik und Naturerkennen. Vienna: Gerold. Translated in Unified Science, edited by B. McGuinness, pp. 24–45. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1987.
Haller, Rudolf, 2003. “On Herbert Feigl.” In Logical Empiricism in America, edited by G. L. Hardcastle and A. Richardson, pp. 115–28. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
James, William, 1890. The Principles of Psychology. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
———, 1907/1908. Pragmatism. A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1907. German version: Pragmatismus. Ein neuer Name für alte Denkmethoden, translated by W. Jerusalem. Leipzig: Klinkhardt, 1908.
———, 1909. The Meaning of Truth. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
Jerusalem, Wilhelm, 1909. “Apriorismus und Evolutionismus.” In Bericht über den III. Internationalen Kongress für Philosophie zu Heidelberg 1. bis 5. September 1908, edited by T. Elsenhans, pp. 806–15. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.
———, 1923. Einleitung in die Philosophy. Revised and enlarged 9th and 10th ed. Vienna: Braumüller (1st ed., 1899).
Klein, Alexander, 2016. “Was James Psychologistic?” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 4: 1–21 (this issue).
Lewis, C. I., 1929. Mind and the World Order. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
———, 1934. “Experience and Meaning.” Philosophical Review 43: 125–46.
Mach, Ernst, 1872/1911. Die Geschichte und die Wurzel des Satzes von der Erhaltung der Arbeit. Prague: J. G. Calve, 1872. Translated as History and Root of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy. Chicago: Open Court, 1911.
———, 1882. Die ökonomische Natur der physikalischen Forschung. Leipzig: K. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei. Translated as “The Economical Nature of Physical Inquiry.” In Popular Scientific Lectures, pp. 186–213. Chicago: Open Court, 1893, 5th ed., 1943.
———, 1883/1960. Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwicklung historisch-kritisch dargestellt. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1883, 9th ed., 1933. Translated as The Science of Mechanics, Chicago: Open Court, 6th ed., 1960.
———, 1905/1976. Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Leipzig: Barth, 1905. Translated as Knowledge and Error. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1976.
McGuinness, Brian, ed., 1967/1979. Wittgenstein und der Wiener Kreis. Gespräche aufgezeichnet von Friedrich Waismann. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1967. Translated as Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. Conversations Recorded by Friedrich Waismann. Oxford: Blackwell, 1979.
Misak, Cheryl, ed., 2010. New Pragmatists. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———, 2016. “The Subterraenan Influence of Pragmatism on the Vienna Circle: Peirce, Ramsey, Wittgenstein.” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 4: 1–15 (this issue).
Neurath, Otto, 1946/1983. “The Orchestration of the Sciences by the Encyclopedism of Logical Empiricism.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 6 (1946): 496–508. Reprinted in Philosophical Papers 1913–1946, edited by R. C. Cohen and M. Neurath, pp. 230–42. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1983.
Peirce, C. S., 1923. Chance, Love and Logic: Philosophical Essays, edited by M. R. Cohen. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Perry, R. B., 1936. The Thought and Character of William James. As revealed in unpublished correspondence and notes, together with his published writings, vol. II, Philosophy and Psychology. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Ramsey, F. P., 1931/1990. “Truth and Probability (1926).” In The Foundations of Mathematics and Other Logical Essays, edited by R. B. Braithwaite, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1931. Reprinted in Philosophical Papers, edited by D. H. Mellor, pp. 52–104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Reisch, George, 2005. How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richardson, Alan, 2007. “Carnap’s Pragmatism.” In The Cambridge Companion to Carnap, edited by R. Creath and M. Friedman, pp. 295–315. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schlick, Moritz, 1910–11. “Das Wesen der Wahrheit nach der modernen Logik.” Vierteljahreszeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie und Soziologie 34–35: 386–477. Translated as “The Nature of Truth in Modern Logic” in Schlick (1979), vol. 1: 41–101.
———, 1926. “Erleben, Erkennen, Metaphysik.” Kantstudien 31, 146–58. Translated as “Experience Cognition, Metaphysics” in Schlick (1979), vol. 2: 99–111.
———, 1931/1979. “Die Kausalität in der gegenwärtigen Physik.” Die Naturwissenschaften 19 (1931): 145–62. Translated as “Causality in Contemporary Physics” in Schlick (1979), vol. 2: 176–209.
———, 1936. “Meaning and Verification.” Philosophical Review 45: 339–69. Reprinted in Schlick (1979), vol. 2: 456–81.
———, 1938/1979. “Form and Content.” in Schlick, Gesammelte Aufsätze 1926–1936, pp. 151–250. Vienna: Gerold, 1938. Reprinted in Schlick (1979), vol. 2: 285–369.
———, 1979. Philosophical Papers, 2 vols., edited by H. L. Mulder and B. van de Velde-Schlick. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Stern, David, 2007. “Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and Physicalism.” In The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism, edited by A. Richardson and T. Uebel, pp. 305–31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Uebel, Thomas, 1992. Overcoming Logical Positivism From Within. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
———, 2007. Empiricism at the Crossroads. Chicago: Open Court.
———, 2011. “Beyond the Formalist Meaning Criterion: Philipp Frank’s Later Metaphysics.” HOPOS: Journal for the History of Philosophy of Science 1: 47–52.
———, 2012. “But is it Sociology of Knowledge? Wilhelm Jerusalem’s ‘Sociology of Cognition’ in Context.” Studies in East European Thought 64: 5–37.
———, 2014. “European Pragmatism? Further Thoughts on the Austro-German Reception of American Pragmatism.” In New Directions in the Philosophy of Science, edited by M. C. Galavotti et al., pp. 627–43. Dordrecht: Springer.
———, 2015. “American Pragmatism and the Vienna Circle: The Early Years.” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 3: 1–35.
Vaihinger, Hans, 1911. Die Philosophie des Als Ob. Leipzig: Meiner.
Williams, Michael, 1991. Unnatural Doubts: Epistemological Realism and the Basis of Septicism. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1922. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, bilingual edition, translated by C. K. Odgen with F. P. Ramsey, rev. ed. 1933, repr. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. New translation by D. F. Pears and B. McGuinness, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961, rev. ed., 1974.
———, 1964/1974. Philosophische Bemerkungen, edited by R. Rhees. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1964. Translated as Philosophical Remarks. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
———, 1999. Wiener Ausgabe, Band 2, Philosophische Betrachtungen. Philosophische Bemerkungen, edited by M. Nedo. Vienna: Springer.
———, 2000. Wiener Ausgabe, Band 11, The Big Typescript, edited by M. Nedo. Vienna: Springer
———, 2003. The Big Typescript, edited by C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue. Oxford: Blackwell.
———, 1928b/2003. Scheinprobleme in der Philosophie. Berlin: Bernary, 1928. Translated as “Pseudoproblems in Philosophy” in Carnap, The Logical Structure of the World, pp. 301–43. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Repr. Chicago: Open Court, 2003.
———, 1932/1959. “Überwindung der Metaphysik durch logische Analyse der Sprache.” Erkenntnis 2 (1932): 219–241. Translated as “The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language.” In Logical Positivism, edited by A. J. Ayer, pp. 60–81. New York: Free Press, 1959.
———, 1963. “Intellectual Autobiography.” In The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, edited by P. A. Schilpp, pp. 3–84. LaSalle, IL: Open Court.
Carus, A. W., 2007. Carnap and 20th Century Thought: Explication as Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Creath, Richard, 1982. “Was Carnap a Complete Verificationist in the Aufbau?” PSA 1982, vol. 1: 384–393.
Dewey, John, et al. 1909. Studies in Logical Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Reprinted in Essays in Experimental Logic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1916. Repr. New York: Dover, n.d.
Feigl, Herbert, 1950. “De Principiis Non Disputandum? On the Meaning and Limits of Justification.” In Philosophical Analysis, edited by M. Black. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Reprinted in Inquiries and Provocations, edited by R. S. Cohen, pp. 237–68. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1981.
Ferrari, Massimo, 2016. “William James and the Vienna Circle.” In Logical Empiricism and Pragmatism, edited by F. Stadler and S. Pihlstrom. Dordrecht: Springer.
Frank, Philipp, 1949. “Historical Introduction.” In Modern Science and its Philosophy, pp. 1–52. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Friedman, Michael, 1992. “Epistemology in the Aufbau.” Synthese 93: 15–57. Reprinted in Reconsidering Logical Positivism, pp. 114–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Hahn, Hans, 1933. Logik, Mathematik und Naturerkennen. Vienna: Gerold. Translated in Unified Science, edited by B. McGuinness, pp. 24–45. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1987.
Haller, Rudolf, 2003. “On Herbert Feigl.” In Logical Empiricism in America, edited by G. L. Hardcastle and A. Richardson, pp. 115–28. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
James, William, 1890. The Principles of Psychology. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
———, 1907/1908. Pragmatism. A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1907. German version: Pragmatismus. Ein neuer Name für alte Denkmethoden, translated by W. Jerusalem. Leipzig: Klinkhardt, 1908.
———, 1909. The Meaning of Truth. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
Jerusalem, Wilhelm, 1909. “Apriorismus und Evolutionismus.” In Bericht über den III. Internationalen Kongress für Philosophie zu Heidelberg 1. bis 5. September 1908, edited by T. Elsenhans, pp. 806–15. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.
———, 1923. Einleitung in die Philosophy. Revised and enlarged 9th and 10th ed. Vienna: Braumüller (1st ed., 1899).
Klein, Alexander, 2016. “Was James Psychologistic?” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 4: 1–21 (this issue).
Lewis, C. I., 1929. Mind and the World Order. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
———, 1934. “Experience and Meaning.” Philosophical Review 43: 125–46.
Mach, Ernst, 1872/1911. Die Geschichte und die Wurzel des Satzes von der Erhaltung der Arbeit. Prague: J. G. Calve, 1872. Translated as History and Root of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy. Chicago: Open Court, 1911.
———, 1882. Die ökonomische Natur der physikalischen Forschung. Leipzig: K. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei. Translated as “The Economical Nature of Physical Inquiry.” In Popular Scientific Lectures, pp. 186–213. Chicago: Open Court, 1893, 5th ed., 1943.
———, 1883/1960. Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwicklung historisch-kritisch dargestellt. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1883, 9th ed., 1933. Translated as The Science of Mechanics, Chicago: Open Court, 6th ed., 1960.
———, 1905/1976. Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Leipzig: Barth, 1905. Translated as Knowledge and Error. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1976.
McGuinness, Brian, ed., 1967/1979. Wittgenstein und der Wiener Kreis. Gespräche aufgezeichnet von Friedrich Waismann. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1967. Translated as Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. Conversations Recorded by Friedrich Waismann. Oxford: Blackwell, 1979.
Misak, Cheryl, ed., 2010. New Pragmatists. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———, 2016. “The Subterraenan Influence of Pragmatism on the Vienna Circle: Peirce, Ramsey, Wittgenstein.” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 4: 1–15 (this issue).
Neurath, Otto, 1946/1983. “The Orchestration of the Sciences by the Encyclopedism of Logical Empiricism.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 6 (1946): 496–508. Reprinted in Philosophical Papers 1913–1946, edited by R. C. Cohen and M. Neurath, pp. 230–42. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1983.
Peirce, C. S., 1923. Chance, Love and Logic: Philosophical Essays, edited by M. R. Cohen. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Perry, R. B., 1936. The Thought and Character of William James. As revealed in unpublished correspondence and notes, together with his published writings, vol. II, Philosophy and Psychology. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Ramsey, F. P., 1931/1990. “Truth and Probability (1926).” In The Foundations of Mathematics and Other Logical Essays, edited by R. B. Braithwaite, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1931. Reprinted in Philosophical Papers, edited by D. H. Mellor, pp. 52–104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Reisch, George, 2005. How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richardson, Alan, 2007. “Carnap’s Pragmatism.” In The Cambridge Companion to Carnap, edited by R. Creath and M. Friedman, pp. 295–315. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schlick, Moritz, 1910–11. “Das Wesen der Wahrheit nach der modernen Logik.” Vierteljahreszeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie und Soziologie 34–35: 386–477. Translated as “The Nature of Truth in Modern Logic” in Schlick (1979), vol. 1: 41–101.
———, 1926. “Erleben, Erkennen, Metaphysik.” Kantstudien 31, 146–58. Translated as “Experience Cognition, Metaphysics” in Schlick (1979), vol. 2: 99–111.
———, 1931/1979. “Die Kausalität in der gegenwärtigen Physik.” Die Naturwissenschaften 19 (1931): 145–62. Translated as “Causality in Contemporary Physics” in Schlick (1979), vol. 2: 176–209.
———, 1936. “Meaning and Verification.” Philosophical Review 45: 339–69. Reprinted in Schlick (1979), vol. 2: 456–81.
———, 1938/1979. “Form and Content.” in Schlick, Gesammelte Aufsätze 1926–1936, pp. 151–250. Vienna: Gerold, 1938. Reprinted in Schlick (1979), vol. 2: 285–369.
———, 1979. Philosophical Papers, 2 vols., edited by H. L. Mulder and B. van de Velde-Schlick. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Stern, David, 2007. “Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and Physicalism.” In The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism, edited by A. Richardson and T. Uebel, pp. 305–31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Uebel, Thomas, 1992. Overcoming Logical Positivism From Within. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
———, 2007. Empiricism at the Crossroads. Chicago: Open Court.
———, 2011. “Beyond the Formalist Meaning Criterion: Philipp Frank’s Later Metaphysics.” HOPOS: Journal for the History of Philosophy of Science 1: 47–52.
———, 2012. “But is it Sociology of Knowledge? Wilhelm Jerusalem’s ‘Sociology of Cognition’ in Context.” Studies in East European Thought 64: 5–37.
———, 2014. “European Pragmatism? Further Thoughts on the Austro-German Reception of American Pragmatism.” In New Directions in the Philosophy of Science, edited by M. C. Galavotti et al., pp. 627–43. Dordrecht: Springer.
———, 2015. “American Pragmatism and the Vienna Circle: The Early Years.” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 3: 1–35.
Vaihinger, Hans, 1911. Die Philosophie des Als Ob. Leipzig: Meiner.
Williams, Michael, 1991. Unnatural Doubts: Epistemological Realism and the Basis of Septicism. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1922. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, bilingual edition, translated by C. K. Odgen with F. P. Ramsey, rev. ed. 1933, repr. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. New translation by D. F. Pears and B. McGuinness, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961, rev. ed., 1974.
———, 1964/1974. Philosophische Bemerkungen, edited by R. Rhees. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1964. Translated as Philosophical Remarks. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
———, 1999. Wiener Ausgabe, Band 2, Philosophische Betrachtungen. Philosophische Bemerkungen, edited by M. Nedo. Vienna: Springer.
———, 2000. Wiener Ausgabe, Band 11, The Big Typescript, edited by M. Nedo. Vienna: Springer
———, 2003. The Big Typescript, edited by C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue. Oxford: Blackwell.
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