1939: Philosophy

Logical Positivism.

Philosophy has always consisted of apparently irreconcilable 'schools of thought,' so much so that the question, 'Must philosophers disagree?' is a matter of not infrequent discussion. In recent years a new school has developed, so-called Logical Positivism, which has made an important attempt at effecting a reconciliation by formulating a view from which it follows that the disagreements between the various philosophical traditions are not genuine. Its view, in general, is that philosophers do not actually disagree with each other, because the problems with regard to which they seem to disagree are only pseudo problems resulting from linguistic confusions. In other words, recent Positivism has sought to establish intellectual amity amongst philosophers by depriving them of their problems. Regardless of whether their view concerning philosophical problems is correct, it cannot, however, be said that in practice they have been successful. For the year which has just passed has seen the publication of a number of books in a variety of philosophical traditions.

Logical Positivism has been most productive of interesting works, of which only a selection can be discussed here. Prof. Carnap, the outstanding Positivist, in his 'Foundations of Logic and Mathematics' (written for the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science) investigates briefly the foundations of logic and mathematics and considers their application to empirical material in the sciences. The study is based on the distinctions, within the theory of language, between pragmatics, the theory of the relations between signs and their users, semantics, the theory of the relations between signs and their meanings, and syntax, the theory of the relations between signs, without reference to their meanings. In his present work, the author develops his theory with regard to foundation problems in logic and mathematics, as formulated in his 'Logical Syntax of Language,' so as to include the semantical aspect of language. His present view is that syntactical rules are sufficient only for the formation of a calculus, and that only by the addition of semantical rules can a meaningful language be obtained. With regard to the application of mathematics to propositions of science Prof. Carnap's view is that it 'consists merely in a transformation of the premises without adding anything to what they say about the facts.'

The purpose of Prof. Bloomfield's 'Linguistic Aspects of Science' (also written for the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science) is 'to state briefly such general considerations of linguistics as may throw light upon the procedure of science.' A causal theory of literal meaning is adopted, and on the basis of a view of this sort the speech community is explained: 'The biosocial aspect of language consists in the fact that the persons in the community have been trained to produce these sounds in certain situations and to respond to them by appropriate actions.' Some of the basic notions of linguistics, e.g., scientific 'report,' negation, contradiction, implication, etc., are then explained. The view is taken that 'In connection with science, language is specialized in the direction of forms which successfully communicate handling-responses and lend themselves to elaborate reshaping (calculation).' Mathematics is considered to be an 'art,' rather than a science, concerned with the 'invention and skilful manipulation of speech forms,' while the task of logic is 'the critique and theory of scientific speech.'

Prof. Schlick's book, 'Problems of Ethics,' (translated from the German by David Rynin), presents the only detailed Positivistic account of ethics. The general view adopted with regard to philosophy is that found in Wittgenstein's 'Tractatus,' namely: '. . . philosophy is not a science, that is, it is not a system of propositions. Its task consists in making clear the content of scientific propositions, that is, in determining or discovering their meaning. . . . This activity constitutes the essence of philosophy; there are no philosophical problems, but only philosophical acts.' With regard to ethics in particular Prof. Schlick holds that 'If there are ethical questions which have meaning, and are therefore capable of being answered, then ethics is a science. For the correct answers to its questions will constitute a system of true propositions, and a system of true propositions concerning an object is the 'science' of that object. Thus ethics is a system of knowledge.' 'Ethics has entirely to do with the actual.' 'Its task cannot be to produce morality, or to establish it, or to call it to life.' Rather its central problem 'concerns the causal explanation of moral behavior,' and belongs to the field of psychology.

Study of Language.

Problems of more general interest are discussed by Mr. Karl Britton in his book, 'Communication: A Philosophical Study of Language,' which is concerned with properties of language and uses to which it is put. He begins by making the now familiar distinction between the emotive and informative functions of language, and with regard to this distinction holds that ethical statements are partly emotive and partly descriptive of means to promote certain interests of individuals or groups of people. His general view is that literally significant assertions, as distinguished from purely emotive ones, are of two sorts, contingent or necessary. Necessary statements are linguistic and provide information about ways in which the symbols of a given language are or ought to be used. Contingent statements are those which provide information about the world and are such that in order to be literally significant they must be verifiable in some sense. With regard to a special class of contingent statements, namely physical object statements, Mr. Britton holds a phenomenalistic view, according to which physical object statements reduce to experiential ones.

Pragmatic Literature.

In the Pragmatic tradition two books of special importance have appeared: John Dewey's 'Logic: The Theory of Inquiry' and 'The Philosophy of John Dewey,' the first volume of the new philosophical library, 'The Library of Living Philosophers.' The latter volume consists of seventeen essays, contributed by various philosophers, which are both critical and expository of Dewey's theories of logic, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, etc., together with a rejoinder by Dewey himself. The essays and rejoinder together serve to produce considerable clarification of Dewey's views. A number of points central to his views are brought out by Dewey, a few of which may be noted here: his conception of experience as an 'interaction of living creatures with their environment'; his view of 'the function of a problematic situation in regulating as well as evoking inquiry'; his view that knowing involves the 'deliberate modification, through working ideas, of what previously existed'; and his distinction between 'the instrumentality of propositions in process of inquiry' and 'the instrumentality of attained knowledge, through development of intelligence, to enrichment of subsequent experience.'

In view of the recent developments in symbolic logic, Dewey's new 'Logic,' which in part consists of an evaluation of those developments, is of special importance. His final opinion is that though symbolic logic has contributed some formal devices which are useful instrumentalities for inquiry, it must nevertheless, on the whole, be replaced by a more 'operational' logic. His own view is that logic is an affair of 'situations,' both cultural and biological, and that out of situations inquiry grows. The structure of inquiry is given in the following definition: 'Inquiry is the controlled and directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole.'

Naturalistic School.

Two contributions of importance have been made to Naturalistic philosophy, one of general nature, Prof. Pratt's 'Naturalism,' the other in ethics, Prof. Westermarck's 'Christianity and Morals.' The former book is devoted in part to tracing the various forms Naturalism has taken throughout the history of philosophy. Modern Naturalism, which actually is divided into three schools, the modern Lamarckians, the Mechanists, and the Vitalists, is explained and its relations to evolution, morality, religion, etc., are discussed. Prof. Westermarck's book, which is encyclopedic in its wealth of detail, is primarily concerned with an evaluation of Christian morals and religion from the point of view of a naturalistic theory of ethics and religion, according to which right and wrong are defined in terms of the retributive emotions of approval and disapproval, and religion as 'a belief in and a regardful attitude towards a supernatural being on whom man feels himself dependent and to whom he makes an appeal in his worship.' One important part of the book is devoted to determining 'how far these theories (dogmas which have appeared in the history of Christian ethics) are in agreement with the nature of our moral emotions'; the other important part is concerned with 'the influence of Christianity upon ideas and behavior within different branches of morality,' where he deals with such subjects as slavery, economics, marriage, and divorce. 'The ethics of Jesus' is held to be 'not only hedonism but egoistic hedonism.'

The publication of Prof. W. D. Ross' Gifford Lectures of 1935-36, 'The Foundations of Ethics,' gives us a book which is in a philosophical tradition diametrically opposed to that in which Prof. Westermarck writes. Prof. Ross makes a considerable effort to refute the 'naturalistic fallacy.' His own view is that the ethical terms 'right' and 'good' (in the intrinsic sense of 'good') are indefinable. This view is already well known from his 'The Right and the Good.' But in his more recent book he no longer holds that 'good' has a single meaning; he now maintains that moral good and pleasure are not good in the same sense.

There remains space only to mention some further works of considerable interest: 'A Sacramental Universe,' Archibald Allen Bowman; 'Language and Reality,' Wilbur Marshall Urban; 'Reason,' University of California Publications in Philosophy; 'Principles of the Theory of Probability,' Ernest Nagel; 'Procedure of Empirical Science,' Victor F. Lenzen; 'Man and His World,' John Elof Boodin; 'A History of Esthetics,' Katherine E. Gilbert and Helmut Kuhn.