Ayer on Logical Positivism: Section 4

Bryan Magee host A.J. Ayer to discuss the philosophical movement of the 20th century known as, Logical Positivism.

Section 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlXmLbGKJY

Section 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQS9fFg0cGY

Section 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip6p6Y7IUrE

Section 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cnRJGs08hE

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Bryan
• Magee
• A.J.
• Ayer
• Philosophy
• Logic
• Logical
• Positivism
• La

[efctony]

Karl Popper said the same thing. In his autobiography, just after saying that he killed Logical Positivism, he said that he admired its attitude.

[achgeewells]

What exactly do you mean by Christianity?

[Gnomefro]

@djs259 Compared to many other movements in philosophy, which are also discarded, but never really impacted or clarified human thinking at all, you seem overly negative in this case.

[Gnomefro]

@djs259 You are jumping to the conclusion that this means that Logical Positivism as a movement was a disaster, but there is an alternative possibility, namely that the reason Logical Positivism failed is because of inherent contradictions in the way humans view reality. If that is the case, the main flaw of the positivists would be that their goals were too ambitious.

Either way, LP was a great success in many respects and certainly exposed a lot of nonsense before being abandoned.

[Gnomefro]

@djs259 "Logical Positivism was an unmitigated disaster for philosophy!"

Absolutely not. The movement's work is one of the relatively few instances where practical applications have come out of philosophy. Namely great advances in the scientific method. It's important to keep in mind that it was not falsified by a radically different alternative that simply was demonstrably better, but by internal inconsistency.

[Anglican08]

I love Ayer's passion for his subject. He's brilliant to listen to.

[djs259]

@set2light That I express disagreement with and criticism of Ayer's comments, is sufficient to suggest to you that I am a "sick puppy", in need of "therapy"? Perhaps; though you would do well to bear in mind that a tendency to pathologize dissent is one of the defining characteristics of the "narcissistic personality", and thus ironically evidence of your own need of "therapy".

So it looks as if the smart-ass internet douchebag pseudo-intellectual is hoist with his own petard!

Tu quoque!

[djs259]

@set2light Your snide comment does not militate much against the truth of my assessment of Ayer's remarks here, nor does any slippery talk of the "cash value of statements" serve remotely to rehabilitate the philosophical detritus of the defunct dogma of Logical Positivism. Apart from a general predilection for anti-metaphysics, there is no good reason to believe that a theoretical account of meaning which ends in self-refutation and paradox should have any real value, heuristic or otherwise.

[set2light]

@djs259

No not quite

Ayer spells out what he means by, "the attitude is right" by reference to the 'cash value' of statements, which went entirely over your head.

You're simply wrong in your very cheap assessment.

As for, 'intellectual dishonesty',

you show no appreciation that Ayer says, with great humor and joviality, that logical positivism was basically all wrong and spells out the reasons for it!!! On yeah, so dishonest

You are one sick puppy in need of therapy

[Charlemagne193]

I just love how he almost celebrates the fact that he was completely wrong. Truly inspiring! Politicians could learn from this guy.