The early 20th century logical empiricists of the Vienna Circle are arguably the founders of the philosophy of science, yet contemporary philosophy of science bears extremely little resemblance to logical empiricism. This text finds a significant part of the reason for that disjuncture to be attributable to political pressures of the Cold War making logical empiricism's original goal of combining technical, philosophical sophistication and engagement with scientists and modern social and economic trends impossible, forcing the philosophy of science into the apolitical, highly abstract form documented in Suppe's Structure of Scientific Theories (1977). Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
First in-depth study of the development of philosophy of science during the Cold War.
This in-depth study of the development of philosophy of science studies in the United States during the Cold War documents the political vitality of logical empiricism and Otto Neurath's Unity of Science Movement when the movement emigrated to the U.S. in the 1930s. It follows its de-politicization by a convergence of intellectual, cultural and political forces in the 1950s. The volume will be of interest to philosophers and historians of science, as well as scholars of Cold War studies.
