"Put in a nut-shell, my thesis amounts to this. The repeated attempts made by Rudolf Carnap to show that the demarcation between science and metaphysics coincides with that between sense and nonsense have failed. The reason is that the positivistic concept of 'meaning' or 'sense' (or of verifiability, or of inductive confirmability, etc.) is inappropriate for achieving this demarcation — simply because metaphysics need not be meaningless even though it is not science. In all its variations demarcation by meaninglessness has tended to be at the same time too narrow and too wide: as against all intentions and all claims, it has tended to exclude scientific theories as meaningless, while failing to exclude even that part of metaphysics which is known as 'rational theology'."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPhilosophers from the United StatesAcademics from GermanyPhilosophers from GermanyLogicians from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Karl Popper (1963) Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. Ch 11. "The Demarcation between Science and Metaphysics." (Summary, p. 253)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudolf_Carnap
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Rudolf Carnap
Rudolf Carnap (May 18, 1891 – September 14, 1970) was a German-born philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the and an advocate of logical positivism.
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Rudolf Carnap →
Related Quotes
"The function of logical analysis is to analyse all knowledge, all assertions of science and of everyday life, in orde…"
"When I met Wittgenstein, I saw that Schlick's warnings were fully justified. But his behavior was not caused by any a…"
"Logic is not concerned with human behavior in the same sense that physiology, psychology, and social sciences are con…"
"If we compare. e.g. the systems of classical mathematics and of intuitionistic mathematics, we find that the first is…"
"Philosophy is to be replaced by the logic of science -- that is to say, by the logical analysis of the concepts and s…"
"By the logical syntax of a language, we mean the formal theory of the linguistic forms of that language -- the system…"
"According to this view, the sentences of metaphysics are pseudo-sentences which on logical analysis are proved to be …"
"In order to determine whether or not one sentence is a consequence of another, no reference need be made to the meani…"
"Logic is the last scientific ingredient of Philosophy; its extraction leaves behind only a confusion of non-scientifi…"
"In science there are no 'depths'; there is surface everywhere."