Customer Reviews

Reconsidering Logical Positivism

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is an excellent collection of essays by Michael Friedman (most of the essays have been previously published) on logical positivism. Friedman challenges the so-called "received view" of logical positivism (the focus of the essays are on Carnap, Schlick, and Reichenbach). Friedman demonstrates his rich understanding on the history of 20th century analytic philosophy, the exact sciences, and the positivists. The book also reflects Friedman's gifts as historian and philosopher. In my view, Friedman presents a persuasive case for viewing the positivists as neo-Kantians (especially, in the "relative a priori" that he argues that they articulate), however, he takes this interpretation a bit too far at some points (NB, a useful sequel to this book is Friedman's "Dynamics of Reason"). Nonetheless, the resulting book represents a valuable contribution to scholarship on logical empiricism and the history of analytic philosophy.

There is a movement of reconsidering logical positivism since the 1990's. Anybody, who is interested in logical positivism, and wants to learn more on it, not just the received view, this book is interesting. But of course more essential for specialists, who must know about these new theories.

A lot of the received view on logical positivism is refuted in this book. All the content is by Friedman, some of it taken from his recent articles.

This book is an excellent collection of essays by Michael Friedman (most of the essays have been previously published) on logical positivism. Friedman challenges the so-called "received view" of logical positivism (the focus of the essays are on Carnap, Schlick, and Reichenbach). Friedman demonstrates his rich understanding on the history of 20th century analytic philosophy, the exact sciences, and the positivists. The book also reflects Friedman's gifts as historian and philosopher. In my view, Friedman presents a persuasive case for viewing the positivists as neo-Kantians (especially, in the "relative a priori" that he argues that they articulate), however, he takes this interpretation a bit too far at some points (NB, a useful sequel to this book is Friedman's "Dynamics of Reason"). Nonetheless, the resulting book represents a valuable contribution to positivist and history of anlaytic philosophy scholarship.

Collects some good papers together in the effort to redeem a few strands of positivism. More folks need to read this.