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Synoptic Philosophy
sense. Names have no sense except in the context of propositions; and propositions are related to facts as “picture of facts'. He states that all the truths of logic are tautologies, and logical proofs are only mechanical devices for recognising categories. Mathematics consists of equations, and the propositions of mathematics are also without sense. The inetaphysician talks nonsense in the fullest sense of the word, as he does not understand “the logic of our language". Metaphysical suggestion is like the composition of a new song. We are told that he made no essential change in his attitude towards the aim of philosophy. Russell writes that the influence of the Tractatus on him “was not wholly good", and that the philosophy of the Philosophical Investigations remains to him completely unintelligible."
Logical Positivism is a philosophical movement emanating from 'The Vienna Circle'. It was a thoroughgoing empiricism backed by the resources of modern logic and tempered by exaggerated respect for the achievements of Science. Ayer's Philosophy is the logical outcome of Hume's empiricism. Like Hume, he divides all genuine propositions into two classes : i) a priori propositions of logic and pure mathematics, which are analytic and therefore necessary and certain; and ii) propo. sitions concerning empirical matters of fact which may be probable but never certain and need to be tested by the verification principle. No statement which refers to a 'reality' transcending the limits of all possible sense experience can possibly have any literal significance. Ayer shows that the Logical Positivist charge against the metaphysician is not that he attempts to employ the understanding in a field where it cannot probably venture, but that he produces sentences which fail to conform to the conditions under which alone a sentence
10. Stenius (Eric): Tractatus- A critical exposition of its main lines of
thought (1960) p. 226. 11. Russell (B): My Philosophical Development (1959) pp. 216-217. 12. Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and Philosophers. Edited by
Urmson (J. C.) (1960),
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