An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science

Introduction

Our discussion of logical empiricism focused on efforts to articulate a ‘scientific philosophy’ centered upon the verification principle. Vienna Circle philosophers and scientists also pursued the project of unified science. To advance this project, the logical empiricists undertook to assemble the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. As Otto Neurath, a social scientist, philosopher, and socialist reformer, wrote in the first volume of the Encyclopedia, “To further all kinds of scientific synthesis is one of the most important purposes of the unity of science movement, which is bringing together scientists in different fields and in different countries, as well as persons who have some interest in science or hope that science will help to ameliorate personal and social life” (Neurath, 1938/1955, 1).

In this chapter we will consider the philosophy of Thomas Kuhn, much of whose impact upon philosophy of science resulted from work that first appeared under the aegis of the unified science movement, yet whose views came to be seen as an emphatic rebuttal of at least some of the primary logical empiricist commitments of that movement.

Between 1938 and 1970, University of Chicago Press published the first two volumes of the Encyclopedia under the series title Foundations of the Unity of Science, with individual articles appearing as monographs. Volume II, number 2 appeared in 1962.