Logical positivitism

Logical Positivism I am going to do a new thing for this blog- I am going to reply to the first quote from Alan Greenspan by going back to a 1927 book ‘New York Nights’ a travel guide to New York by Stephen Graham and it is notable that because , and he admits it- the author is an immoral man- when this particular philosophy is present to him he rejects if by going straight back to the words of Jesus to refute it! “I often did my work by the radio in 1950-51, our military was fighting in Korea fighting bloody battles against the Chinese, and President Truman dismissed General Mac Arthur for his public insistence that the United States should declare war on China. At home the atomic bomb testing moved from New Mexico to Nevada and we had the Red Scare…Like many scientifically minded people I believed that atomic energy was the most important frontier we could unlock in our lifetimes. This was the other side to the fear that we felt of atomic war. The science was extremely seductive. The atom conferred a power on mankind that could open a whole new phase of endeavor. This in turn, called for a new way of thought. I discovered that some of the scientist from the Manhattan Project subscribed to a philosophy called ‘Logical Positivism’, a variation on empiricism. Pioneered by Ludwig Wittgernstein, it was a school of thought whose main tenet was that knowledge can be only gained from facts and numbers – it heavily emphasized rigorous proof. There were no moral absolutes, values and ethics and the way people behave are a reflection of culture and are not the subject of logic. They vary so arbitrarily that they are completely outside the realm of serious though’ p38-39 Alan Greenspan 2007. ‘ I met a writer of popular science one day. He is a man who believes all things and yet is a pessimist. As a writer he is extremely successful. His mind is founded on a belief in science popularly understood, But he sees to be disillusioned with life. You cannot mix him anything for which he will not give you a formula. ‘What next in writing’ was the question which he propounded to me. I said ‘Why not compile a book of unanswered questions as a set off the current –Ask me another craze? Americans are getting the dangerous idea that all questions can be answered ‘ He replied ‘Yes we are beginning to know a little more about everything’ Travel, gaiety, new experience seemed to have little lure for him. The night life which I described to him he dismissed as ‘carnal’ I said “What you need to do is is sell all that you have and give it to the poor. Clothe yourself and rags and set off to some place like Mecca” “Oh I’ve tried it. I’ve tried it” he said. But he had a charming room at Algoquin. I image that if the gospels were rewritten for Americans with synthetic souls a story of that kind would be told. The answer of the young man “One thing thou needest. Sell what thou hast and give to the poor, take up thy Cross and follow me’ And the answer would be- I’ve tried it, I’ve tried it.’ P118-119 New York Nights Stephen Graham –G.H.Doran 1927