Metaphysics for Positivists: Mach versus the Vienna Circle

Discipline filosofiche. 23 (1):57-77 (2013)
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Abstract

Ernst Mach and the Vienna Circle are linked historically, but conceptually the views of Mach do not fit well with logical positivism. My purpose in the present paper is to reconsider 1) Mach’s positive natural philosophy 2) what Mach meant by “anti-metaphysics”, 3) whether Mach really was “anti-metaphysical” in the sense of demanding verification in principle for every term or statement in science, and 4) how Mach’s views on metaphysics differed from those of many Vienna Circle philosophers. I believe a strong case can be made for separating Mach’s realistic version of empiricism from that of the Vienna Circle, but perhaps the “received view” of the Vienna Circle philosophers does not describe their views very well either.

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10.1400/217046

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Erik C. Banks
Wright State University

Citations of this work

Ernst Mach’s Contribution to the Philosophy of Science in Light of Mary B. Hesse’s Postempiricism.Pietro Gori - 2021 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 11 (2):383-411.
Epistemology in Practice: Ernst Mach’s Experiments on Shock Waves and The Place of Philosophy.Luca Guzzardi - 2023 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 54 (1):79-98.

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