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Synoptic Philosophy
Sense experience is private and cannot be communicated. The more radical among them, like Carnap and Neurath, were hence led to physicalism, which is nearer to behaviourism in psychology.
iii) For logical Positivists, as for other empiricists, sense experience is the only criterion of knowledge. Modern Psychical Research, on the other hand, affirms the possibility of extra-sensory experiences. In addition there are certain other experiences, like the speculation, moral and aesthetic.
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The problem of supersensuous experience is not new to us in India. All schools of Indian philosophy, except the Cārvākas and Mimāṁsakas, believe in it. Supersensuous experience transcends the categories of time, space and causality; "Our sense organs are narrowly specialised to serve biological and practical ends. and our normal consciousness is also largely specialised." In the face of these facts, it would be narrow and fanatical to insist on sensory experience and the verification principle as the only criteria of knowledge. Like the men chained against the walls of the cave in The Republic. the empiricists refuse to see beyond what they would like to affirm.
iv) Moreover, for the Logical Positivists the verification principle has been a dogma and a commandment. But the principle of verification is not a self-evident statement, nor is
capable of verification by sense experience. The logic of the analytic philosophy is itself based on a metaphysic. certain presuppositions about the universe. 18
v) Nevertheless, the effects of Logical Positivism have been serious. It has engendered a negative climate of opinion, and was likely to shatter the old beliefs in the social, moral
17. Tyrrell (G. N. N.): The Personality of Men (Pelican) p. 265. 18. Radhakrishnan (S): The International Institute of Philosophy and Indian Philosophical Congress. Entretiens edited by N. A. Nile.
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