Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 29 (May 2019) 95

Bargaining with positivism: are hypotheses and that they cannot stand as
absolute claims of knowledge.
Science’s nexus to philosophy Positivism, which grounds its philosophical nut

on the scientific process, composes the point that
- Jan Gresil S. Kahambing
“laws have meaning only in the sense that they are
Leyte Normal University, Tacloban City, Philippines
abstracts from which statements can be
Email: [email protected]
constructed. This is the view which is generally
entertained by Positivists of the Viennese Circle and
Abstract
related groups (Weinberg, 1936, p. 143).” It is to be
This article pushes forward the idea that positivism,
drawn however that science is separate from
the philosophical system in the early analytic
logical positivism, the former being the
tradition that recognizes only those which are
systematized body of knowledge and the latter
scientifically verifiable through logic and
being the philosophical movement early in the
mathematical proof, is still embedded in an
Analytic tradition that insists on scientifically
existential impetus of philosophical reflection. The
verifiable facts as its core. For Anchinstein and
extent to which science advances in the reflection of
Barker (1969, p. 451) “science does not need
human life is seen for instance in the current
positivistic interpretation; but, in the spirit of the
research of transferring young mouse blood to old
best positivist work, it very much needs an analysis
mice for rejuvenation, possibly rendering cure to
of its methods.”
diseases stemming from old age and ultimately
The Vienna Circle started with the Thursday
immortality. The success of the experiment on mice
evening discussion of Moritz Schlick together with
is a jumpstart for its application to humans, and
‘philosophically-minded mathematicians and
from there, one cannot but speculate whether this
scientists (Caldwell, 2003, p. 11).’’ On the relevance
set-up is an irony to the supposed antinomy of
of science to philosophy and vice-versa, the Vienna
science to demystify immortality elixirs and ancient
Circle took it in an oversimplified manner to mean
cure superstitions. The set-up is open and though
that philosophy had to become ‘scientific’ (Uebel,
positivism will find it hard to accommodate
1992, p. 11). Logical positivism or logical
philosophical reflection, it still needs such
empiricism took its name when the Vienna Circle
disposition to critically assess the loopholes of a
saved empiricism and gave it a positivistic light in
sternly logical and mathematically inclined
the name of logic. Uebel labels this the ‘marriage’ of
universe. Science has a social dimension and is
empiricism and logicism (1992, p. 8). But there is a
connected to the social influence and importance of
weakness that positivism poses in philosophy.
analytic philosophy and philosophy in general.
The greatest weakness of positivism, in the
Science and the tension between positivism philosophy of mind as elsewhere, is that it tries
and meaning to make the notion of meaning bear too heavy a
Language is loose – its meaning lies in the burden. This is always a bad tendency in
ambiguity residing within concepts. In this sense, analytic philosophy, but it is fatal in a school
vocabulary too is context-dependent since the which begins by scrapping the customary
analysis of a given text varies on the convention notion of meaning anyway, and which has
upon which it is constructed. And this does not seriously examined every science except
exempt the vocabulary of science. Scientific linguistics (Anchinstein and Barker, p. 451).
language would claim firstly – out of observable While science and positivism compose logical
phenomena – a hypothesis, a proposition made as a structures to clarify analytically the terms of
probable guess to provide explanation. When the language into systematic procedures in order to
hypothesis is affirmed through the experimentation verify knowledge, it dispels in the process the
of its variables, it becomes confirmed – it is essential warrant for meaning. That is to say, that
elevated into a theory. When the theory is further ‘given the close connection between
confirmed from its hypothetical manner of meaningfulness and knowledge, verificationism
explaining phenomena, it is universally accepted – after the linguistic turn meant that there simply
then, it becomes a law. But Cohen (2014, p. 560) could be no defense of non-empirical scientific or
points out that there is a discrepancy in non-metascientific philosophical knowledge (Uebel,
systematizing the vocabulary of scientific language. p.10).’
He points that Newton’s discovery is called law of The question of meaning is repressed, apart from
gravitation but Einstein’s reinvention and knowledge, and albeit science and positivism try to
improvement of it is only called ‘theory of relativity.’ clarify, they instead tend to proselytize. The
Cohen then says that essentially, laws and theories relationship of science and positivism here
endangers the crucial fact that concepts are never
96 Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 29 (May 2019)

dogmatic. They are in the first place open for new Aristotle’s Metaphysics. I-I, 4.) once again has to put
conventions and formulations. This perhaps risks in the frontline its substratum of resolution
the idea of knowledge as a cold realistic assessment towards a source that gets higher in degrees.
of things: when meaning is transposed as a foreign Without signifying yet whether the Prime Mover of
element apart from knowledge, its scrutiny is Aristotle is God, as baptized by Aquinas, Aristotle
likewise questionable when the austere measures it already acknowledges that substances that come
adapts are enacted in a manner similar to the from the same origin will move towards each other
medieval inquisitions and witch hunts. – hence, acknowledging that the perfect motion is a
The French philosopher and sociologist, Auguste circular motion where substances return to their
Comte brings to light the essential nature of underlying similitude or ‘quintessence’. In the
knowledge acquisition. Auguste Comte’s positivism, exitus-reditus schema, perfection is achieved
although accounted as his own, is acted only in through a return.
what for Comte as the founders of Positive Current biomedical researches (Scudellari, 2015;
Philosophy in the time of Bacon, Descartes and Shytikov, et. al., 2014; Conboy, et. al., 2005; Kaiser,
Galileo (Mill, 2005, p.3). For John Stuart Mill: 2016) thus adjudge it correct to look at its trail in
such a ‘return’ perspective: the genes, cells, blood
The fundamental doctrine of a true philosophy,
plasma, etc. of the young generation below age 25
according to M. Comte, and the character by
could be medically injected to boost the vitality of
which he defines Positive Philosophy, is the
the old ones. The wonder of our rodent friends is
following: We have no knowledge of anything
initiating wishes to come true, as the pioneering
but Phaenomena; and our knowledge of
experiments of mice prove to be applicable to
phaenomena is relative, not absolute. We know
humans after all. Rejuvenation is the apt term,
not the essence, nor the real mode of
where youth reclaims its essence. Up-to-date, there
production, of any fact, but only its relations to
are excesses and deficiencies of the process. But it
other facts in the way of succession or of
would not take long before studies advance in the
similitude. These relations are constant; that is,
process’ golden mean; its posology and bug fixes.
always the same in the same circumstances. The
Moving forward to its incisive outcome, if this
constant resemblances which link phaenomena
effect might come to mean not only reducing aging
together, and the constant sequences which
from its normal pace but also blurring the
unite them as antecedent and consequent, are
definition of a running age as it might possibly
termed their laws. The laws of phaenomena are
come to a stop and even move the physiological
all we know respecting them. Their essential
changes backward, then it carries in a nutshell the
nature, and their ultimate causes, either
plausibility of immortality – its rigors, fascination,
efficient or final, are unknown and inscrutable
and deflating of the entire airship of ideas humanity
to us (Mill, 2005, p. 3).
has ever contemplated in its existential queries of
Only in the sense that positivism knows its limits finitude and oblivion.
as confined by phenomena, it becomes aware of its It is not even a big bang. To have come up with the
own meaning. A scientist may project the life of an equation that deals with the young as the future,
organism as normal to the detriment of any that is to say of ‘what is new’ to marvel the next
meaningful end, but it is narrowing the possibility generation, is nothing that merits a shock. The
of further probabilities in the relations of things. In celebrated futurism tangled in the reveries
order to illustrate this, one can only evaluate the accorded for the young is an age-old mentality of
existing question or hypothesis of current scientific the passing idealists. What makes this a paradigm
advances. shift is the scientific breakthrough: how the whole
thought process materialized into its effectiveness
Bargain: biomedical research, as a real-time apparatus.
immortality, and life This further sets forward the implication that to
The next big thing could be inclusive fitness: (in a large extent, the next decade or century is no
Genetics) the principle referring to the ability of an longer a fatalistic perspective of the universe e.g.
organism to pass its genes to the next generation. It chaos has run down everywhere where there are
might not be in the same cohesion as with, for glitches, inconsistencies, loopholes of all sorts,
instance, the harmony of a raga placed side by side much that a widespread adikia roams through the
in sync with the latest emo jam but talking about natural fabric of human societies and its inevitable
what will be the best for the upcoming generation decay. But this reprehensively tarnishes the novelty
must have something to deal with perfect of the future as it stands now, because the next face
continuity. The classic exitus-reditus scheme in of human civilization is already verging in the
antiquity and the middle ages (see Aristotle’s glorious theft, not anymore of fire, but of eternity.
Physics, 261a12, cf. Aquinas’ Commentary on The stage following Prometheus and Heraclitus will
 Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 29 (May 2019) 97

fulfill a promise that upgrades reason and While the young are fed with vampirism
instability into the beginning of a stable end, a done fantasies and the old fascinate themselves with
deal with Comte or a more promising version of their long lost vivacity, the parabiosis that depicts
Fukuyama’s end of history (1992) – for the last man both as one aspiration to an immeasurable life
is not anymore the calculable goal-driven picture ahead is still in psychoanalytic standards a glaring
Nietzsche (1969) presents but the last man in the impossibility of desire. The bargain for immortality
present state: a stage of time’s stoppage that signals remains, as it were, a formula that needs countless
the paradoxical emergence of higher men, and resolutions. It will therefore not dissolve totally the
perhaps of supermen. questions of human expiration, even as it may
That science can provide men immortality is philosophize on an everlasting concept of matter.
reflective of the demon Mephistopheles in Goethe’s What the bargain may offer at best is an ethical
Faust where Dr. Faust gave up his soul for the sake choice, however complex it may seem – and within
of a limitless desire for knowledge and power. The this realm, all the other social dimensions –
irony here is: while science demythologized voodoo psychology, economics, politics, morality, and social
rituals, alchemists, demonic insurgences of justice – are inherently constituted therein. It
medieval influence and primeval naturalism, it will would not be a problem for a person, for instance,
now serve as the Mephistopheles setting up the as the case may be if he has a lifetime to read all the
bargain for humanity’s immortal birthright: books he wants to read or to write all the
science’s process shall bring forth men in the manuscripts to clear his head, and to discover
bloodline of Dr. Faust, uncovering their esoteric everything that the old and new world opens. But –
interests, animal impulses, in an infinite horizon and here goes the limiting conjunction – what
opening both extremes of puritan self-mastery or would everything, minus the hyperbole, mean:
the corruption of the whole moral order. The what would that differ to a lifetime lived in an
bargain does not even have to work both ways: the authentic dealing towards death? How would that
acquisition of immortality itself is the soul’s affect the weight of every word, every action, every
disappearance. relationship that governs persons, regardless of
However, its quest would also denote the immortality? What would an infinity make of two
Dionysian (Nietzsche, 1927) dissolution of reality: persons who are in love to exhaust all the
those who have the power to gain it will have to put possibilities of a relationship – reevaluating the
hindrances for others to do the same. One science limits and maturity of monogamy and polygamy
to rule them all. For advancement was never about altogether?
success but monopoly – who gets there first, who The next big thing could not simply be a smooth
suppresses the rest, who stands above the status transition to an inclusive fitness. A brave new world
quo. In this sense, life is not merely biological life could be up ahead and science will not explain for
but also social life and from here, bargaining us a theory of everything. It will then leave at best
becomes the social dimension that is positioned an open bargain that will guarantee still
within the constellation of complex interlinkages. philosophy’s search for meaning and how living
Hence, the sociality of science. Moreover, one can coalesces every single sophistication along with it.
connect here Babette Babich’s reservation (2017)
in the contemporary post-human era: even if Tying the nexus of (analytic)
technologies will be produced through the philosophy’s importance
advancement and improvement of humanity, she Zabala and Davis (2013) opines in Aljazeera
forwards the realistic claim that only the rich or concerning Stephen Hawking’s pronouncement
those on the top of the food chain can afford such that ‘philosophy is dead,’ and further asks which
new technologies. philosophy is dead. They emphasized that if there
It will not, therefore, be an easy bargain, for souls is a specific philosophy that is dead, it is analytic
– in desperation, gamble, chancing, and so on – will philosophy. They began reiterating the late Richard
still need to be put in the line, in which the Rorty and French theorist Alain Badiou in their
probability of succeeding has lesser percentage echo of Hawking that philosophy is dead. In
than a risky participation of Russian roulette. One Badiou’s Infinite Thought (2004), particularly, one
still needs to go into the system of gaining more to can draw the point that analytic philosophy’s
get the prize and work within the systematic orientation and standard, beginning from
possibilities offered by the social environs of reality. Wittgenstein and Carnap in the Vienna Circle, is the
Reality had to teach again the lesson that the specific philosophy that does not seek truth but
ultimate basis supervening positivism is the idea polices it. The desire not to create idea but to
that only in science can one find salvation, at least demarcate a rigid standard for meaning and
for those who control the modern Archimedes at utterances is limiting. Hence, the orientation of
gunpoint. analytic philosophy turns philosophy ‘into a slave
98 Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 29 (May 2019)

to the hard sciences, especially physics,’ and matters. Because the moral philosophy that ‘logical
because this kind of philosophy cannot keep up constructionism’ and ‘conceptual analysis’ analyzes
with the sciences, it is thereby dead in Hawking’s is confined to meta-ethics, such as Moore’s account
eye. above, analytic philosophy is often illustrated as
neutral or conservative. But analytic philosophers
For the essence of analytic philosophy focuses
are not silent in political matters. Glock says that
on meaning at the expense of openness to
“no philosopher of any age has every trumped
different and surprising truth-conditions that
Russell’s political engagement on the side of the
may appear beyond an assumed analytic
down-trodden and oppressed (p. 184).” In spite of
structure, stipulating what philosophy can do or
Horkheimer – a representative of continental
cannot do.
critical theorists of the Frankfurt school that is
If a person behaved like the vast majority of
active in the socio-political sphere – saying analytic
analytic philosophy does in our time, they
philosophy is apolitical, Glock notes that “the
would be diagnosed with having a death wish
Vienna Circle was the most political philosophical
and imposture syndrome, by enslaving itself to
group of note in the twentieth century (p. 184).”
a scientific elitism. In this respect, the Trojan
Despite the complexity of political times,
horse of philosophy might just be analytic
philosophy insists and continuously penetrates into
philosophy snuck into the city of Troy, which
the socio-political arena.
today has become ever-shrinking conservative
However, this is not to say that analytic
philosophy departments in universities.
philosophy in itself is active even if the analytic
Students in these universities are not only
philosophers who represent it are. It is not only the
forced to read summaries rather than the great
critical theorists attacking analytic philosophy who
classics texts from the history of philosophy, but
give rise to this critique, but also ‘other
are trained, like scientists, to write articles
philosophers have accepted the ethical and
instead of books (Zabala and Davis, 2013).
existential irrelevance of analytic philosophy (Glock,
This would come as unsurprising given that even p. 188).’ But if there is one thing that assures
in Moore’s conception of ethics, one cannot relay concerning relevance, it is that contemporary
easily an ‘ought’ proposition, a prescriptive, apart mainstream analytic philosophers accept neither
from, a descriptive tendency of analytic language. the point that moral judgments are ‘non-cognitive’
For him, the term ‘good’ – the coinage in ethics that and that philosophy ‘should remain ethically
implies a force of action – is indefinable and that for neutral.’ This goes to show that truth of analytic
his naturalistic fallacy, any attempt whatsoever to philosophy’s relevance accommodates the critique
define ‘good’ is bound to fail (Moore, 1903, 11-16; of non-usefulness but also the point of politico-
cf. Glock, 2008, p. 57). One can also read in G.E. ethical involvement. In this sense, philosophy is still
Moore’s preface in his Principia Ethica (1903): “It not passé.
appears to me that in Ethics, as in all other Going back to the nexus of science to philosophy
philosophical studies, the difficulties and in general, David Purdie of Edinbrugh University
disagreements, of which its history is full, are discovers a letter whose author is Einstein (Malik,
mainly due to a very simple cause: namely to the 2019). Against scientists who claim of philosophy’s
attempt to answer questions, without first irrelevance, the letter states the importance of
discovering precisely what question it is which you David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature to
desire to answer.” This led Moore into proposing Einstein’s scientific work. Einstein was influenced
his ideal utilitarianism: “A utilitarianism that bases by philosophers, from Mach to Schopenhauer,
its judgments solely on pleasure and pain is which suggests how ‘science is not simply the
hedonistic. Some theorists, such as G. E. Moore, accumulation of empirical data’… but also ‘the
have suggested that there are other goods that questions we ask, the methods we employ to
should be maximized, such as knowledge, answer those questions, the conceptual
friendship, health, aesthetic awareness; this is frameworks within which we fit the facts (Malik,
considered ideal utilitarianism (Edgar, 2003, p. 61).” 2019).’
G. E. Moore, whom Tom Regan (1999, xii) called On a final note, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj
“analytic philosophy’s patron saint,” then takes the Žižek (2006) says that “the task of philosophy is not
approach that reflects a meta-ethical standpoint to provide answers or solutions, but to submit to
(Gunkel, 2012 p. x). critical analysis the questions themselves, to make
And yet on the other side of the spectrum, Glock us see how the very way we perceive a problem is
(2008, p. 182ff) comprehensively analyzes that on an obstacle to its solution.” Therein lies an opening
the question “Is Analytic Philosophy Morally for analytic philosophy and, by extension, the
Neutral and Conservative?” analytic philosophy analyses offered by positivism in its verification
cannot absolutely be said to have excluded practical methods. The task is not to bargain with the
 Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 29 (May 2019) 99

thought in mind of dispelling meaning and any Shytikov, D., Balva, O., Debonneuil, E., Glukhovskiy, P.,
other philosophical venture that seeks it, but to and Pishel, I. (2014). Aged Mice Repeatedly Injected
constantly put into questioning – that is, into with Plasma from Young Mice: A Survival Study. Biores
bargaining – truth with its manifold philosophical Open Access 3(5). US National Library of Medicine,
National Institutes of Health.
implications.
Uebel, T. (1992). Overcoming Logical Positivism From
Within: The Emergence of Neurath’s Naturalism in the
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