UNIT 1 LOGICAL ATOMISM AND POSITIVISM

CONTENTS

1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Definition of Logical Atomism
1.3 Philosophy of Logical Atomism
1.4 Logical Positivism: Major Thrusts
1.5 Verifiability Theory of Meaning
1.6 Let Us Sum Up
1.7 Key Words
1.8 Further Readings and References
1.9 Answers to Check Your Progress

1.0 OBJECTIVES

Modern analytical empiricism, which we shall discuss in this unit, differs from that of Locke,
Berkeley and Hume by its incorporation of Mathematics and its development of a powerful
logical technique. Mostly following the scientific method it was able to achieve definite answers
to specific questions in philosophy. Due to its peculiar methodology it has the advantage of being
able to tackle its problems one at a time. This is a definite improvement on the earlier
philosophies of the system builders who were habituated to resolve at one stroke all major
philosophical puzzles with a block theory of the universe. Analytic philosophers strongly
believed that in so far as philosophical knowledge is concerned, it is by such methods that it must
be sought. Closely following the footsteps of science, they were convinced that by there methods
many ancient philosophical problems are completely soluble. In this unit an attempt will be made
to expose how scientific methods are adapted to resolve problems in philosophy. The main
objective of this unit is:
• To introduce logical atomism and positivism which were simultaneously developed
during the first half of the by-gone century, as adjuncts to analytic Philosophy.

1
 • The unit will discuss the main features of the philosophy of logical atomism propounded
mainly by Bertrand Russell.
• Regarding logical positivism the unit will explore its viability and feasibility as a method
in philosophy.

1.1. INTRODUCTION

There are, of course questions traditionally included in philosophy, where scientific method
proves inadequate. Ethical and Aesthetic issues fall under this category. Analytic thinkers declare
that the failure to separate these two kinds, the theory as to the nature of the world on one hand,
and the ethical or political doctrine on the other, has been a source of much confused thinking.
They categorically affirm that whatever can be known, can be known by scientific method and
those which are matters of feeling are to be kept outside this province. Such a viewpoint would
be a drastic deviation from our accepted and well-trodden path in philosophy down the ages. For
successfully or not philosophy has been surviving all these years addressing issues encompassing
all varieties of questions, be it epistemological, metaphysical, ethical or religious. This they
decline on both moral and intellectual grounds. Morally speaking, when a philosopher uses his
professional competence for anything except a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of
treachery. It is presumed that the true philosopher is prepared to examine every preconception
that is involved in his theory. When a philosopher adopts unexamined presuppositions as part of
his theoretical constructions and places a censorship over his own investigations it results in
making philosophy a trivial exercise. Intellectually too, the traditional attempts made by
philosophers to justify ethical/ religious beliefs ended up in falsifying logic, making mathematics
mystical and plead for their deep rooted prejudices on the guise that they were heaven-sent
intuitions. This unit, therefore, intends to instruct the learner on the significant deviation from the
long resorted philosophical methods, both in logical atomism and positivism.

1.2 LOGICAL ATOMISM: DEFINITION

2
 Bertrand Russell, a stalwart in 20th century analytic tradition has advocated a species of
realism in terms of the logic, which characterizes it, namely atomic. He held that logic is what is
fundamental in philosophy, and that schools should be characterized rather by their logic than by
their metaphysics. In his classic Principia Mathematica, which he wrote along with Whitehead,
gives stress on this point. The concept of philosophy, its problems and methods, developed by
Russell and Moore was provided with a rigorous procedure by the formulation of a new logic
developed by them, which had greater scope and power than any known previously.

1.3 PHILOSOPHY OF LOGICAL ATOMISM

Russell’s logical atomism is a resultant product of his philosophy of mathematics. He

calls his logic atomistic, as opposed to the monistic logic of the people who more or less follow
Hegel. By calling it atomistic he shares the commonsense belief that there are separate things.
Russell does not consider the multiplicity of the world as consisting merely in phases and unreal
divisions of a single indivisible reality. It is multiplicity in its real and true sense of the term. He
calls his doctrine logical atomism because the atoms that he wishes to arrive at as the last residue
in analysis are logical atoms and not physical atoms. Some of them he calls particulars.

The basic thesis of logical atomism is that if one could construct an ideal language, that
language would be identical with the structure of reality. This ideal language will, unlike the
ordinary language be precise, in which each particular will be called by one name. Similarly each
atomic sentence will be composed of elements, which get their meaning by direct co- relation
with experience. What constitutes the experience is the sense data. The world will be seen to
consist in a vast number of separate and independent facts, and knowledge of the world will be
seen to depend upon acquaintance with immediate experience.

The sort of analysis, which Russell is running in logical atomism, can proceed in two
directions. First, by breaking down sentences containing disguised descriptions in to sentences
containing overt descriptions of things in the world. This may be termed as horizontal analysis.
It starts from the level of things in the world and ends there. The second analysis is of the object
in the external world in to descriptions of sense data. This is a deep analysis because it takes us

3
down to things of an entirely different kind. As we concern ourselves with this deep analysis a
few things are to be sorted out.

Propositions
For Russell propositions are the sorts of things, which are true or false. They are
expressed by sentences that assert and symbolize something. While complex symbols may be
understood by learning language, simple ones cannot be so understood. For instance, to
understand the word red, there is no other way but to see red things. Propositions are either
atomic or molecular. An atomic proposition is a proposition none of whose parts are
propositions.
Russell has come to concede that propositions are not real constituents in the world.
Among the furniture of the world we find only facts and particulars, but no propositions.

Proper names
Proper names are words used to name particulars. If a name fails to refer to an individual
or particular, then it is no name. Russell makes it clear that the only word that is capable of
standing for a particular is a proper name. When we name an individual or particular we are
describing it. For example, when we use the word Socrates, we are describing him either as ‘the
master of Plato’ or ‘the philosopher who drank the hemlock.’

Individuals/ Particulars
For the atomist, individuals are the ultimate entities of the world. There are an infinite
number of kinds of individuals: particulars, qualities, relations etc. These individuals/ particulars
can be thought of as the ultimate subjects of sense acquaintance. Particulars are also simple
things, which cannot be decomposed or defined, but merely pointed out.

Atomic facts
Russell discerned varieties of facts: atomic facts, general facts, negative facts and
intentional facts. A fact is defined as that which exists in the world, which makes the proposition

4
corresponding to it either true or false. The expression of fact invariable involves a sentence. An
atomic fact is a combination of a particular and a relation, like say, ‘this is red’. The particular
may be a sense datum and the component may be a predicate. In cases when one predicate or
relation is involved Russell calls them monadic facts. When there are two particulars and one
relation those are called dyadic facts. In this fashion there could be triadic, quadratic etc. In
general where there is one relation and n constituents it is n-adic facts

General facts
When it is said that world consists of atomic facts, it may appear as though the general
facts of the form ‘All x’s are y’s’ are just derived by the accumulation of the atomic facts. But no
matter how many of them you count you will not be saying the same thing as when you say ‘All
x’s are y’s’. By ‘all’ we are not saying that we have observed a sufficiently big number, or
indeed any number what so ever. It is saying something else. It is picturing a new fact. This new
kind of proposition pictures a new kind of fact called general fact.

Negative facts
Negative facts are kinds of atomic facts. Russell construed negative facts since he
found it extremely difficult to say what exactly happens when you make a positive assertion that
is false; hence negative facts. But Russell is left with the problem of saying either that the word
‘not’ named some element in the world or not.

Intentional facts

Propositions containing verbs such as wishes, wants, beliefs and the like are not truth functional
propositions. The truth or falsity of propositions such as ‘Johns believes that p’ cannot be
determined from the truth or falsity of p. But if propositions about intentional facts cannot be
treated truth functionally and analyzed into atomic propositions, then we must allow this new
type of fact into our metaphysics. As Russell observes, it becomes a new species for the zoo.

5
 Logical atomism as it got developed moderately began to exhibit cracks and strains. So
much so that its very proponents were lead to abandon it. Its flows were visible as they began to
elaborate it. The initial simplicity of a logically perfect language mirroring the relations of a
small number of readily describable types of ultimate constituents of the world became
progressively more complicated. The result was to burden the theory beyond the point where its
beauty and utility were attractive.

Check Your Progress I

Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer

b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit

1) What is logical atomism?

…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………..
2) What do you understand by proposition?
………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….

1.4 LOGICAL POSITIVISM: MAJOR THRUSTS

6
 Logical positivism, as a name for a method, not a theory as such, maintains that there is
no special way of knowing that is peculiar to philosophy. As we have already noted, positivism
confines knowledge in philosophy to factual assertion, and therefore, it can be decided by the
empirical methods of science. Factual questions cannot be determined without appeal to
observation. What cannot be decided by the empirical methods of science are either
mathematical or logical. However what is distinctive of positivism is its attention to mathematics
and logic, and emphasis upon linguistic aspects of traditional philosophical problems. British
empiricists were least influenced by mathematics while continental philosophers like Kant
regarded mathematics as the pattern to which other knowledge ought to approximate. Logical
positivism features this peculiarity that it is able to combine mathematics with empiricism by a
new interpretation of mathematical propositions. It was in fact mathematical logic that gave the
technical basis for positivistic school. Mathematics, from Pythogoras onward was mixed up with
mysticism. Plato’s eternal world was inspired by mathematics. Aristotle though more empirical
than Plato still thought the capacity for doing sums so remarkable that the arithmetical part of the
soul must be immortal. In modern times, both Spinoza and Leibniz adopted mathematical model
to conceive reality. Leibniz in fact went up to say that if controversies were to arise between two
philosophers, what they need to do is to sit down and calculate just like how two accountants
would do in the case of disagreement. Kant believed that his theory of knowledge couldn’t be
disentangled from his belief that mathematical propositions are both synthetic and a priori.
Hegel made a quite different use of mathematics in his dialectical method. He “…fastened upon
the obscurities in the foundation of mathematics, turned them in to dialectical contradictions and
resolved them by nonsensical syntheses”. The puzzles that were created by these great men of
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were cleared up during the nineteenth century, not by
heroic philosophic doctrines, but by patient attention to detail. For example, the definition of the
number 1 had great importance in clearing up metaphysical confusions. The middle age
scholastics used to say, “One and being are convertible terms.” It now appears that ‘one’ is a
predicate of concepts, not of the things to which the concepts are applicable. For example, ‘one’
applies to ‘satellite of the earth’, but not to the moon. Similarly ‘being’ applies only to certain
descriptions, never to what they describe. These distinctions put an end to many arguments of
metaphysicians from Parmanides and Plato to the contemporary thinkers. In fact such a

7
development in the Principles of Mathematics suggest that philosophical puzzles need to be
dissolved rather than solved. Logical positivism arose largely out of this suggestion.
Logical positivism originated in Vienna circle in the early twenties. It has in fact,
historical affinities with the skeptical empiricism of David Hume and the scientific
conventionalism of Mach and Poincare. It is a matter of interest to philosophers that most of the
members of Vienna circle were non philosophers; they were specialists in various disciplines like
mathematics, physics, history and sociology.
Though it is difficult to cast the main features of positivism as it has undergone radical
transformation in the course of its development at the hands different representatives of the
movement, one may, in general identify the core of positivism as the employment of verifiability
criterion of meaning.

1.5 VERIFIABILITY THEORY OF MEANING

According to this theory an empirical statement is significant/ meaningful iff it is verifiable

by appeal to experience. This version of verifiability was marked as the strong sense that requires
that a statement, if it is to be meaningful, should admit of verification or falsification by direct
confrontation with experience. A few early members of the circle like Mortiz Schlick insisted on
this narrow sense of verifiability. Later thinkers, however, found it too restrictive and proposed a
wider sense which would include direct as well as indirect verifiability. By direct verifiability it
is meant verifiability in practice and by indirect verifiability they meant verifiability in theory.
They were forced to adopt this wider sense of the term since many of the commonly used types
of sentences, such as general statements, historical statements about an inaccessible past,
statements which are not practically verifiable etc are all meaningful and essential in our daily
life though not directly verifiable.

Look at the sentence, “If atomic warfare is not checked, it may lead to the extermination
of life on this planet”. This may or may not be true, but it is significant. It is however, one which
cannot be verified, for who would be left to verify it if life were extinct? Probably, Berkeley’s
God, whom positivists entertained little hope! Similarly going in to the past, we all believe that
there was a time before there was life on the earth. Verifiability, for sure, do not wish to run

8
down such possibilities, but to make sense of such sentences we must use verifiability some what
loosely.

Some times a proposition is regarded as verifiable if there is any empirical evidence in

its favor. That is to say ‘All a is B’ is verifiable, if we know of one A that is B and do not know
one that is not B. However, this view leads to logical absurdities. This shows that the above wide
definition of verifiability is useless. All the same unless we allow some such wide definition we
cannot escape from paradoxes.

Similarly, there are propositions about unrealized situations; take such a proposition as
‘Rain some times falls in places where there is no one to see it’. No one disputes this, but it is
impossible to mention a raindrop that has never been noticed. Can anyone seriously maintain that
the planet Neptune or the Antarctic continent did not exist until it was discovered? Adherents of
verifiability interpret such facts hypothetically. According to them the statement “There is
undiscovered iron in the interior of earth.” is abbreviation, and the full statement should be: ‘if I
did certain things, I should discover iron’. This solution is not appealing for it is unlikely that
anybody will ever find this iron. In any case, how can it be known what then a person would
find?. A hypothetical proposition of which the hypothesis will probably be false obviously tells
us nothing. Let us consider yet another proposition of this kind: “There was once a world without
life.” This cannot mean: “If I had been alive there I should have been that nothing was alive.”

Let us look in to verification theory more intently. The theory that the meaning of a
proposition consists in its method of verification follows two positions: 1) That what cannot be
verified is meaningless, 2) That two propositions verified by the same occurrences have the same
meaning. Both these propositions are difficult to maintain. To consider first (1), practically every
advocator of this theory would admit that verification is a social exercise which the individual
takes up at a later stage, and definitely not as he acquires experiences in early stages. Further the
hypothesis that nothing exists barring my perceptual experience is too naïve a position for, there
are other people who also perceive and remember. If we are to believe in the existence of these
other people (as we must) and admit testimony as a valid means of knowledge, it is difficult to
identify meaning with verification.

9
 To consider (2), the theory that two propositions whose verified consequences are
identical have the same significance is acceptable provided we confine verification to a limited
time span. For this reason, we may use ‘verified’ and not ‘verifiable’, if the verifiable
consequences are to be identical. For example, the proposition that “ all men are mortal” may be
true as on now, but it may be that on 10th January 2010 an immortal man will be born. That is to
say, the verifiable consequences of “ All men are mortal” in fact amounts to “all men born before
the time t are mortal but not after that”.

Positivism on a priori and a posteriori

One of the prime motives of logical positivism has been to investigate the formal
or a priori aspects of knowledge and the a posteriori or empirical ones. Rejecting Kant’s claim
of the validity of synthetic a priori knowledge, positivists maintained that a priori is always
analytical or tautological. The whole of formal logic and pure mathematics consists of such
tautologies. For positivists, therefore, all cognitively significant statements are either empirically
verifiable statements of fact or tautological statements, depending on the structure of language.

Rejection of Metaphysics
One of the striking philosophical consequences of the positivistic analysis of
knowledge is that it rejects the whole of metaphysics as meaningless, given that only analytical
or empirical statements are knowledge producing. Positivist philosophers observe that
philosophical works down the history are filled with statements that are neither empirical nor
analytic tautologies, and therefore nonsensical.

Function of philosophy
If metaphysical, ethical and aesthetic judgments are non- cognitive,( issues in these
areas which were functions traditionally assigned to philosophy), what then is the new function
of philosophy? For positivists, the prime task of philosophy is to analyze philosophical concepts,
and resultant clarification of philosophical meaning. Apart from this philosophers may also
formulate speculative generalizations of a cosmological sort based on the factual evidence of

10
empirical sciences like physics, biology, astronomy etc. Yet another function of philosophy is to
construct conjunctures regarding the past history of the physical universe, the origin of life etc.
Such factual hypothesis must be meaningful as they are at least verifiable in principle.
Philosophers can also engage themselves in the elucidation of the philosophical categories such
as possibility, existence, probability, causality etc. Though such categories will be construed as
purely analytical and tautological, and not synthetic a priori as Kant claimed. Positivists point
out that the philosophical analysis of the linguistic type may be significant and fruitful even
though it cannot be expected to yield synthetic truth.

Later versions of positivism in America and England

Positivism was transplanted in America by Roudolf Carnap with slight alteration,
making it more flexible and philosophically tolerant. He explored positivism’s inherent vitality
and flexibility best and made it congenial with such American philosophical tendencies as
pragmatism and operationalism. Carnap was largely responsible for giving Positivism a vigorous
and precise formulation and transformed it to a more adaptable Logical empiricism. Carnap’s
Logical empiricism retains the anti- metaphysical claims of the earlier Positivism, but assigns an
important task to philosophy, the task of clarifying language and its meaning. This is to be
carried out in the following disciplines:

1) Syntax: This is concerned with the formal inter connections of linguistic signs and specifies
the structural rules for sentence formation.
2) Semantics: This deals with the examination of meanings of linguistic expressions by reference
to extra- linguistic facts.
3) Pragmatics: This investigates the functions of language at sociological and psychological
levels.

The favorable reception of Positivism in England is to be accounted for its closeness to

Anglo- American empiricism. In England the analytic and empirical philosophies of G. E Moore
and Bertrand Russell provided a philosophical temper favorable to the reception of Positivism.
Ludwig Wittgenstien, the dominant figure in the philosophic circle at that time, in his Tractatus

11
Logico Philosophicus supporting the anti—metaphysical position of Positivism wrote: “Most
propositions and questions that have been written about philosophical matters are not false, but
nonsensical”. We cannot therefore, answer questions of this kind at all, but only state their
senselessness” (Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, 4.003). Along with Carnap, Wittgenstien too
voiced that philosophy is nothing but a critique of language. Philosophy as a discipline should
not compete with other disciplines in raising true propositions. The function of philosophy is
rather to bring out logical clarification of our thoughts; it must make our propositions clear.

Positivistic analysis of Ethics

Positivists had two approaches towards ethical propositions. It was possible for
them to consider ethical propositions either as empirical statement, which is factual in nature, or
as non- cognitive one. Mortiz Schlick adopted the first approach where by he observes that
valuation, approbation etc. are actually psychic occurrences and therefore, ethical statements are
purely psychological one. Some others have felt that like other natural sciences ethics too must
become the science of moral consciousness.

Among those who argue in favor of non- cognitive states of moral judgments, A.J Ayer
is the most prominent philosopher. Ayer points out that one class of ethical statements-
exhortations to moral virtue - are in fact not propositions at all, but rather commands designed to
provoke the reader to act in a particular way. Most of the ethical words are emotive. A highly
suggestive and original version of emotive theory is propounded by C.L Stevenson. His work
Ethics and Language testifies the versatility of the positivistic theory and the fruitfulness of
positivistic analysis in clarifying non- cognitive status of ethical sentences.

1.6 LET US SUM UP

Bertrand Russell’s Logical Atomism as opposed to the monistic logic of the people who
followed Hegel shares the commonsense belief that there are separate things in our world of
experience and this multiplicity is real and true. It is logical because the atoms that Russell wants
to arrive at as the last residue in analysis are logical atoms and not physical atoms. The basic
thesis of Logical Atomism is that if one could construct an ideal language that language would
be identical with the structure of reality. This ideal language will be precise which is capable of
12
taking up a deep analysis of the object in the external world in to descriptions of sense data. In
order to conduct this a few elements of this are to be sorted out, such as propositions, proper
names, Individuals, atomic facts, general facts, and Intentional facts.

Logical Positivism stands for a method and not for a theory and maintains that there is no special
way of knowing that is peculiar to philosophy. Positivism confines knowledge in philosophy to
factual assertions and shown that it can be decided by the empirical methods of science. Factual
questions are to be determined by appeal to observation, and what cannot be decided by
empirical methods is either mathematical or logical. What is distinctive of Positivism is its
attention to mathematics and logic and emphasis upon linguistic aspects of traditional
philosophical problems. One may, in general identify the core of positivism as the employment
of verifiability criterion of meaning. According to this theory, an empirical statement is
significant iff it is verifiable by appeal to experience.

One of the prime motives of Logical Positivism has been to investigate the formal or a priori
aspects of knowledge and the a posteriori or empirical ones. Based on this distinction they
rejected the whole of metaphysics. The function of philosophy according to them is nothing but
conceptual clarification.

Check Your Progress II

Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer

b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit

1) What is the function of philosophy according to positivists?

…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………..

13
2) Why do positivists reject metaphysics?
………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….

1.7 Key Words

Theory of Verification: The Theory, which holds that an empirical statement is

significant/meaningful iff it is verifiable by appeal to experience.

Positivism: A method that holds that there is no special way of knowing that is peculiar to
philosophy and factual propositions can be known resorting to scientific method. Positivism
combines mathematics with empiricism by a new interpretation of mathematical
propositions.

Logical Atomism: The school that holds that a logically perfect language can mirror the
relations of a small number of readily describable types of ultimate constituents of the world.

Proposition: Those sort of things expressed by sentences which are either true of false.

Iff : If and only if (expressing a set of necessary and sufficient conditions)

Proper names: Proper names are words used to name particulars.

Individuals: Ultimate entities of the world revealed through sense data

General Facts: That category of facts, which would account for general propositions.

14
 Negative facts: Kinds of atomic facts construed to account for positive assertions that are
false.

Intentional facts: Propositions containing verbs such as wishes, wants, believes and the like
which are not truth functional propositions and therefore are classified as a separate type of
fact.

General facts: That category of facts, which would account for general propositions.

A priori Propositions: Those propositions, which are formal and known prior to experience.

A posteriori propositions: Those propositions, which are empirical and known after
experience.

1.8. Further Readings and References

Grayling, A.C. Russell. Oxford, 1996

Grayling, A.C. Philosophy 2. Oxford, 1998
Hylton,P. Russel, Idealism and the Emergence of Analytic Philosophy. Oxford, 1990
Irvine,A., and Wedeking,G. Russell and Analytic Philosophy. Toronto, 1993
Russel, Bertrand. Logic and Knowledge. Routledge: London and New York, 1956

1.9 Answers to Check Your Progress

Answers to Check Your Progress I

1. Bertrand Russell has advocated a species of realism in terms of the logic, which
characterizes it, namely atomic. It’s logic is atomistic unlike the monistic logic of the
people who more or less followed Hegel because it shares the commonsense belief that
there are separate things, a multiplicity in its real and true sense of the term. It proclaims

15
 that a logically perfect language can mirror the relations of a small number of readily
describable types of ultimate constituents of the world.
2. Propositions are the sorts of things which are true or false and are expressed by
sentences to assert facts. Propositions are either atomic or molecular. However,
propositions are not real constituents in the world. Among the furniture of the world we
find only facts and particulars, but not propositions.

Answers to Check Your Progress II

1. For Positivists the prime task of philosophy is to analyze philosophical concepts and
resultant clarification of philosophical meanings. Apart from this philosophers may also
formulate speculative generalizations of a cosmological sort based on the factual evidence
of empirical sciences like physics, biology, astronomy etc. Yet another function of
philosophy is to construct conjectures regarding the past history of the physical universe,
the origin of life etc. Philosophical analysis of the linguistic type may be significant and
fruitful even though it cannot be expected to yield synthetic truth.
2. Given that only analytical or empirical statements are knowledge producing, Positivist
philosophers observe that metaphysical statements that are neither empirical nor analytic
tautologies are nonsensical.

16