The Rise of Logical Empiricist Philosophy of Science and the Fate of Speculative Philosophy of Science

Abstract

This paper contributes to explaining the rise of logical empiricism in mid-twentieth century (North) America and to a better understanding of American philosophy of science before the dominance of logical empiricism. We show that, contrary to a number of existing histories, philosophy of science was already a distinct subfield of philosophy, one with its own approaches and issues, even before logical empiricists arrived in America. It was a form of speculative philosophy with a concern for speculative metaphysics, normative issues relating to science and society and issues which later were associated with logical empiricist philosophy of science, issues such as confirmation, scientific explanation, reductionism and laws of nature. Further, philosophy of science was not primarily pragmatist in orientation. We also show, with the help of our historical characterization, that a recent account of the emergence of analytic philosophy applies to the rise of logical empiricism. It has been argued that the emergence of American analytic philosophy is partly explained by analytic philosophers' use of key institutions, including of journals, to marginalize speculative philosophy and promote analytic philosophy. We argue that this use of institutions included the marginalization of speculative and value-laden philosophy of science and the promotion of logical empiricism.Acknowledgements: we would like to thank the paper's anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.

American Women Philosophers: Institutions, Background and Thought

“…One of the key theoretical goals that helped shape the field of philosophy, including that of the philosophers whose work is collected here, was that of engaging closely with the established special sciences-including the natural sciences but also psychology, sociology and humanistic fields such as history-in order to illuminate and learn from them (Cohen, 1910;Creighton, 1902Creighton, , 1912Katzav & Vaesen, 2022;Morris, 1935). For many working in, or in the wake of, the idealist tradition, such engagement should include a critique of the sciences that brings out some of their limitations (de Laguna, 1951;Katzav & Vaesen, 2022). The tradition that grew through such philosophical engagement with science that aimed to go beyond science is the speculative tradition.…”

“…Some pragmatists, it is important to emphasise, not only rejected absolute idealism but also the speculative approach to philosophy that came with it. For them, pragmatism did not come with a metaphysics but focused on a view of knowledge and problem resolution (Katzav & Vaesen, 2022). A similar rejection of speculation was part of the realist, analytic response to the issues with absolute idealism, a response (Katzav, 2018;Katzav & Vaesen, 2017).…”

“…The distinctiveness of the tradition of analytic philosophy was not really novelty on matters of substance but in its narrowing down of philosophy solely to its analytic side (Katzav, 2018;Katzav & Vaesen, 2022). Pragmatism also emerged, largely within the speculative wing of philosophy and, with philosophy more broadly, intersected with other fields of thought, science, education and moral/religious discourse in particular.…”

“…While some might find our approach anachronistic in places, we hope it will facilitate the integration of the work collected here into exiting courses in philosophy, the development of women-first narratives and a better understanding of who developed analytic ideas and arguments. tific Methods in 1904, and (c) the creation of an association for academic philosophers, the APA, in 1900 (Auxier, 2005;Katzav & Vaesen, 2022). Further discussion of the institutional background to the work of women philosophers collected here is provided in Sect.…”

“…1.2 of this introduction. The methodological and theoretical developments included the development of widely shared frameworks that delineated the methodological approaches and theoretical tasks of academic philosophers, frameworks that helped to differentiate philosophy from related academic fields, especially from theology and psychology, which were also professionalising in similar ways (Auxier, 2005;Katzav & Vaesen, 2022). Further discussion of the methodological and theoretical developments during the period under consideration is found in Sect.…”