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LTT: Sander Verhaegh
January 28, 2020 @ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST
The American Reception of Logical Positivism
Sander Verhaegh, Center Visiting Fellow
Tilburg U.
ABSTRACT: In the late-1930s, a small number of European logicians and philosophers of science sought refuge in the United States, escaping the quickly deteriorating political situation on the continent. Within a few years, these logical positivists significantly reshaped the American philosophical landscape. Where US philosophy had been dominated by pragmatism, realism, and naturalism in the first decades of the twentieth-century, American philosophers began to develop positivist views about meaning, method, and metaphysics in the years before and after the Second World War.
Although the positivist turn in American philosophy has been thoroughly documented and studied, surprisingly little is known about the years that immediately preceded the great intellectual migration. Still, there are many signs that this period played a formative role in the positivist turn. In this paper, I will reconstruct the early development of logical positivism in American philosophy by reconstructing the first encounters between US academics and members of the Vienna Circle (most notably Feigl’s and Schlick’s research visits to the United States and Quine’s and Nagel’s visits to Europe). Building on archive material from the personal and academic archives of Feigl, Quine, and Schlick, I aim to shed new light on the development of philosophy of science in the United States in the decade immediately preceding the Second World War.
Details
- Date:
- January 28, 2020
- Time:
-
11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST
- Event Category:
- Lunchtime Talks
Venue
- 1117 Cathedral of Learning
-
4200 Fifth Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 United States