Origins Of Logical Empiricism (Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science) - Hardcover

Giere, Ronald N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0816628343 ISBN 13: 9780816628346

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1996

Synopsis

Logical empiricism remains a strong influence in the philosophy of science, despite the discipline's shift toward more historical and naturalistic approaches. This latest volume in the eminent Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science series examines the main features of the intellectual milieu from which logical empiricism sprang, providing the first critical exploration of this context by authors within the Anglo-American analytic tradition of philosophy. These articles challenge the idea that logical empiricism has its origins in traditional British empiricism, pointing instead to a movement of scientific philosophy that flourished in the German-speaking areas of Europe in the first four decades of the 20th century. The intellectual refugees from the Third Reich who brought logical empiricism to North America did so in an environment influenced by Einstein's new physics, the ascension of modern logic, the birth of the social sciences as rivals to traditional humanistic philosophy, and other large-scale social, political and cultural themes. The contributors emphasize the connections among members of the logical empiricist movement as well as their connections with members of other major intellectual movements of the time. Focusing on the continuing influence of logical empiricism and the vitality of the issues with which its proponents struggled, this important volume provides valuable context to contemporary philosophers of science.

About this title

About the Author

Ronald N. Giere (Ph.D., Cornell University) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota and a former Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Minnesota. In addition to many papers in the philosophy of science, he is the author of UNDERSTANDING SCIENTIFIC REASONING (4th ed 1997); EXPLAINING SCIENCE: A COGNITIVE APPROACH (1988); and SCIENCE WITHOUT LAWS (1999). He has also edited several volumes of papers in the philosophy of science, including, most recently, Cognitive Models of Science (1992) and Origins of Logical Empiricism (1996). Professor Giere is a Fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science, a long-time member of the editorial board of the journal Philosophy of Science, and a past president of the Philosophy of Science Association. His current research focuses on scientific cognition as a form of distributed cognition and on the perspectival nature of scientific knowledge.

Alan W. Richardson is associate professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0816628343
• ISBN 13: 9780816628346
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400