How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science: To the Icy Slopes of Logic [Hardcover]

George A. Reisch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0521837979 | ISBN-13: 978-0521837972

This in-depth study of the development of philosophy of science studies in the United States during the Cold War documents the political vitality of logical empiricism and Otto Neurath's Unity of Science Movement when the movement emigrated to the U.S. in the 1930s. It follows its de-politicization by a convergence of intellectual, cultural and political forces in the 1950s. The volume will be of interest to philosophers and historians of science, as well as scholars of Cold War studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"How the Cold War Transfoormed Philosophy of Science is a rich and important contribution to the history of philosophy of science, the history of philosophy, and the American postwar history." - Jordi Cat

"Reisch has written a complex, controversial, and richly documented book on the fall of logical empiricism in North America. I highly recommend it." --Francis Remedios: Philosophy in Review

Book Description

This intriguing and ground-breaking book is the first in-depth study of the development of philosophy of science in the United States during the Cold War. It documents the political vitality of logical empiricism and Otto Neurath's Unity of Science Movement when these projects emigrated to the U.S. in the 1930s and follows their de-politicization by a convergence of intellectual, cultural and political forces in the 1950s. It will prove absorbing reading to philosophers and historians of science, intellectual historians, and scholars of Cold War studies.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521837979
• ISBN-13: 978-0521837972
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,796,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Unity of Science movement comes to America, and what happened to it there, July 7, 2005

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Jim Farmelant (Medford, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science: To the Icy Slopes of Logic (Paperback)

Most students of twentieth century philosophy are familiar with the story of the Vienna Circle, that movement of philosophically minded scientists and scientifically minded philosophers that created the philosophy known as logical positivism in central Europe following WW I. Many of its leading figures like Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Herbert Feigl and so on, are still remembered today and their writings are still read by analytical philosophers. And most students of twentieth century philosophy tend to think of this movement has having been devoted to a highly technical philosophy centering around modern logic and the philosophy of science. What most people don't remember about this movement is that in its origins at least, while its concerns did indeed center around developments in modern logic and the philosophy of science, they were by no means limited to those subjects. This should be evident to anyone who has ever read the manifesto of the Vienna Circle - "The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle" which was authored by two of its leading figures - Otto Neurath and Rudolf Carnap. In this manifesto, Neurath and Carnap made it clear that their concerns extended beyond logic and science to encompass all aspects of society and culture including the arts, education, and politics. They made clear their connections with and commitment to socialism, and they even cited Karl Marx as one of the thinkers to which they looked up to. Neurath as an avowed Marxist, even went so far as to declare that in the future, the proletariat would become "the bearer of science without metaphysics."

Yet most people who are familiar with the logical empiricists think of their movement as having been highly apolitical or they may embrace the image of them that has been handed down to us by the Frankfurt School (i.e. Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse) who portrayed the logical empiricists as having been rather bloodless technocrats who were at least tacitly conservative. How did a philosophical movement which had emerged within the social democratic culture of "red" Vienna, come to develop such an image? Well, George Reisch in his lucidly written, *How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science*, gives us at least a part of the answer. In this book, Reisch explores the reception of logical empiricism in the United States, with a special concentration on the fate of the Unity of Science movement which was founded by Neurath and which was continued, after his death, by the philosopher and physicist, Philipp Frank. As Reisch describes it, the Unity of Science movement was committed to demonstrating the fundamental unity of the sciences including the natural sciences, the behavioral sciences and the social sciences, and the Unity of Science movement was interested in using social science to explore how economic, political and cultural factors have shaped the development of science. As Reisch points out, the Unity of Science movement drew upon Marxist ideas while eschewing the dogmatism of dialectical materialism, which it dismissed as metaphysics. Its leading figures like Neurath and Frank were democratic socialists who were committed to using the methods of science to help create a fairer, more just society. But in the end, it seems that instead of transforming American society, the Unity of Science movement withered and died, and logical empiricism, itself, became shriveled in its concerns, abandoning its former political commitments in the name of scientific neutrality. George Reisch believes that the witchhunting climate of the McCarthy period of the 1950s had more than a little to do with this transformation, and he documents the extent to which people like Carnap and Frank were subjected to FBI surveillence and harassment while becoming isolated within the academy as it embraced the dogmas of cold war anticommunism.

All readers who are interested in the history of logical positivism, in twentieth century philosophy, or in the history of the American academy during the McCarthy period should find this well written book to be of great interest.