How does logical positivism remain “true to basic empiricist principles."?
How does logical positivism remain “true to basic empiricist principles,” thinking specifically of their theory of language.
I am asking this in sort of an abstract way, ultimately about the philosophy of science.
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I learn more about LP every time someone asks.
"They assured him that such concepts as metaphysics or existence or reality or thing or matter or mind are meaningless—let the mystics care whether they exist or not, a scientist does not have to know it; the task of theoretical science is the manipulation of symbols, and scientists are the special elite whose symbols have the magic power of making reality conform to their will (“matter is that which fits mathematical equations”)......
"But this omnipotent power, surpassing the dreams of ancient numerologists or of medieval alchemists, was granted to the scientist by philosophical Attila-ism on two conditions: a. that he never claim certainty for his knowledge, since certainty is unknown to man, and that he claim, instead, “percentages of probability,” not troubling himself with such questions as how one calculates percentages of the unknowable; b. that he claim as absolute knowledge the proposition that all values lie outside the sphere of science, that reason is impotent to deal with morality, that moral values are a matter of subjective choice, dictated by one’s feelings, not one’s mind."
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/logical_positivi...
If Reason is impotent, then it destroys Rationalism completely. But neither is it 'true' to Empiricism. Empiricism does not find import in semantics like this:
There's a word for it
And words don't mean a thing
There's name for it
And names make all the difference in the world
Some things can never be spoken
Some things cannot be pronounced
That word does not exist in any language
It will never be uttered by a human mouth...
Let X make a statement
Let breath pass through those cracked lips
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notabene/logical-...
My 'best' answer to this question 4 years ago, using the name Yaoi, give other parts of the answer to your question.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200808...
What is the cornerstone of atheism? If through 'cornerstone' you imply the unmarried purpose through which all atheists got here to their end of atheism, then there may be none. A particular atheist might base his or her atheism on logical positivism, however that does not make it the cornerstone of atheism commonly.
Sorry mister, I'm not certain what 'positivism' and 'empiricist' mean.