Verificationism
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Recent papers in Verificationism
1. Quote/Unquote Philosophers like other people often have a weakness for quiz-shows. And like the crew in the Hunting of the Snark, they are all of them fond of quotations 1 . So I begin with a quotation and a question. The quotation... more
In Der logische Aufbau der Welt, first published in 1928, Carnap aims to rationally reconstruct all objects of cognition by logico-definitional means. As a result, he intends to obtain a fully objective framework in which scientific... more
I am planning a history of the notion of philosophical nonsense and naturally difficult historical and exegetical questions have come up. Charles Pigden has argued that the notion goes back at least as far as Hobbes and that Locke,... more
How do philosophical accusations of talking nonsense relate to the layperson’s notions of meaning and meaningfulness? If one were to explain carefully what philosophical nonsense was supposed to be, would one be greeted with... more
Sass, like R. D. Laing before him, wants to make sense of schizophrenic discourse. In 'Paradoxes of delusion – Wittgenstein, Schreber and the schizophrenic mind' he uses Wittgenstein’s later work, particularly the Blue Book, to this... more
Dualists and the so-called "mysterians" aren't the only people who believe that Daniel Dennett is a "scientistic philosopher" – Dennett thinks that about himself! That is, Dennett refers to his own overriding philosophical position as... more
Thomas Nagel in ‘What is it like to be a bat?’ suggests that we don’t yet have much idea of how mental entities could be identical with physical ones (though he wisely stops short of accusing physicalists of not meaning ANYTHING... more
This paper looks at philosophical accusations of talking nonsense from the perspective of argumentation theory. An accusation of this sort, when seriously meant, amounts to the claim that someone believes there is something she means by... more
This book is an introduction in a double sense. It is intended to introduce beginners in philosophy to the idea of philosophical nonsense and the problems it raises. But it is also addressed to professional philosophers, most of whom seem... more
https://www.urbanomic.com/book/collapse-5/ In 2007 James Ladyman and Don Ross published Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized, an attempt to synthesize Ladyman’s ‘Ontic Structural Realism’ and Ross’s ‘Rainforest Realism’ into a... more
Stimulated by T. P. Uschanov’s paper ‘The strange death of ordinary language philosophy’, I try to reach a balanced assessment of Gellner’s notorious book and also to decide where Gellner stands on the notion of philosophical nonsense.... more
There are passages in Wittgenstein where he compares his method to psychotherapy and one or two where he seems to suggest that the ‘patient’ has the last word on his ‘illness’ and ‘cure’. This paper tries to take these seriously,... more
This paper starts from Tractatus, 6.53, and ask how one could show someone ‘that he had failed to give a meaning to certain signs in his propositions’. Once one has fully mastered the ‘austere’ conception of nonsense – that nonsense has... more
I originally entitled this paper ‘Why are there no uncontroversial examples of philosophical nonsense?’, but since this seemed apt to provoke rather superficial responses, I decided to re-title it. In it I ponder the fact that, not only... more
.Taking as my starting-point Cora Diamond’s paper ‘What nonsense might be’, I extend her ‘austere’ conception of nonsense to encompass the talking of nonsense. We need to focus on the utterer as well as the utterance. This brings out... more
According to a widespread view, Einstein’s definition of time in his special relativity is founded on the positivist verification principle. The present paper challenges this received outlook. It shall be argued that Einstein’s position... more
Edward Witherspoon distinguishes Wittgenstein’s conception of nonsense from Rudolf Carnap’s. The latter does not fully take into account the fact that, if something really is nonsense, it has no more meaning than ‘Ab sur ah’ and... more
Few would doubt that one often encounters the preposterous in philosophy. Some would claim that preposterousness in philosophy is often a matter of literal nonsensicality, i.e. meaninglessness. Is this plausible or is it itself an... more
Philosophers know a great deal about how reasoning can go wrong but very little about what can go wrong with the conclusions that philosophers try to establish by their reasonings. It is Stove’s great merit that he tackles the latter... more
I am planning a history of the notion of philosophical nonsense and naturally difficult historical and exegetical questions have come up. Charles Pigden has argued that the notion goes back at least as far as Hobbes and that Locke,... more
This essay argues that acknowledging the existence of mind-independent facts is a matter of vital importance, in that acquiescence before the layout of the world is something demanded of knowing agents from the most elementary empirical... more
Wittgenstein's notion of passing from 'disguised' to 'patent' nonsense is problematic once one realises that nonsense can have no logical properties. I ask whether anything has yet been demonstrated to to be disguised nonsense. No... more
This paper is a critique of coercive theories of meaning, that is, theories (or criteria) of meaning designed to do down ones opponents by representing their views as meaningless or unintelligible. Many philosophers from Hobbes through... more
realism (MR). On the other hand, authors like Schlick, Carnap and Putnam held forms of scientific realism coupled with metaphysical antirealism (and this has analogies in Kant). So we might ask: do scientific realists really need MR? or... more
Since the demise of logical positivism accusations of talking nonsense in philosophy have mainly been made by Wittgensteinians. But some of these latter are as free with words like 'nonsense', 'senseless' and 'meaningless' as any logical... more
Haack distinguishes many varieties of realism (depending on what each contrasts with. Discussing the strength and weaknesses of each, she ends with a brief statement of her Innocent Realism.
The paper analyzes the conception of free will defended by Wittgenstein in the Tractatus, and in contrast to Pasquale Frascolla’s verificationist reading of 5.1362, it argues that Wittgenstein’s conception of free will squarely places... more
C. S. Peirce is often credited as a forerunner of the verificationist theory of meaning. In his early pragmatist papers, Peirce did say that if we want to make our ideas clear(er), then we should look downstream to their actual and future... more
Most analytic philosophers are atheists, but is there a deep connection between analytic philosophy and atheism? The paper argues a) that the founding fathers of analytic philosophy were mostly teenage atheists before they became... more
A metaphilosophical look at realism, antirealism, truth, knowledge, justification and verificationism using the philosophy of mind and the foundations of quantum mechanics as exemplars.
Cook’s paper ‘Wittgenstein on privacy’, though published over fifty years ago, is still one of the most impressive attempts to take seriously what philosophical nonsense would have to be. Cook argues that someone who says, ‘It is not... more
How do philosophical accusations of talking nonsense relate to the layperson’s notions of meaning and meaningfulness? If one were to explain carefully what philosophical nonsense was supposed to be, would one be greeted with... more
The author examines a well-known argument against the Principle of verifiability. According to the argument, since the Principle itself is neither analytical nor empirically verifiable, it should be rejected as a piece of metaphysical... more
I am planning a history of the concept of philosophical nonsense and naturally difficult historical and exegetical questions have come up. Charles Pigden has argued that it goes back at least as far as Hobbes and that Locke, Berkeley,... more
Resumo: O artigo aplica tópicos do inferencialismo semântico de Brandom para iluminar o verificacionismo do Wittgenstein Intermediário, como o papel expressi-vista da negação, o holismo semântico do inferencialismo e a não redutibilidade... more
Empiricism has frequently been said to appeal to non-empirical principles to defend empirical knowledge, which is why it has been accused of falling into some form of self-refutation. With the advent of logical empiricism, this objection... more
Is There Such A Thing As Philosophical Nonsense? For the best part of a century now philosophers have been accusing each other of talking nonsense. This practice presupposes that people can be wrong in thinking they mean anything by... more
Stuart Hampshire in his review of Gilbert Ryle’s 'Concept of Mind' draws a distinction between two ways of using psychological terms. The simple ‘He doesn’t believe in life after death (or the coming revolution)’ has a different use and... more
I discuss Charles Pigden’s paper ‘Coercive theories of meaning, or why language shouldn’t matter (so much) to philosophy’ and ask whether theories of meaning whose primary purpose is to discredit rival philosophies as meaningless... more
How do philosophical accusations of talking nonsense relate to the layperson’s notions of meaning and meaningfulness? If one were to explain carefully what philosophical nonsense was supposed to be, would one be greeted with... more
I consider the dispute, not with a view to reaching a final verdict, but for the light it sheds on the notion of philosophical nonsense. How does it look to a sceptic about philosophical nonsense? It is generally agreed that the... more
How do philosophical accusations of talking nonsense relate to the layperson’s notions of meaning and meaningfulness? If one were to explain carefully what philosophical nonsense was supposed to be, would one be greeted with... more