'Rational dogma' under label 'positivism' emerged in Austria and Germany around 1900 (did very well in Lutheran circles AND in Jewish middle-upper-class circles) .
This quasi Jewish scientific stream in Vienna (most members were Jewish and even not Jewish members were often considered as Jew by the Austrian newspapers) was strongly influenced by the "Tractatus Logico Philosophicus" (my short version Minitractatus) of the young Wittgenstein, in
which he states that every proposition is a picture of reality (inspired by the logical atomism of his teacher Bertrand Russell). Wittgenstein himself soon left this view, realizing that some pictures of reality were both very empty and pure fantasy.
Vienna was THE jewish capital in Europe with a Jewish population that reached 150.000.
By the early 1890s the atmosphere in Vienna changed and became anti-semite, caused
by a large influx of immigrants from the Eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, especially from the Czech lands and Hungary.
Between 1897 and 1910 the popular demagogue and anti-Semite Karl Lueger (1844-1910) was elected mayor of Vienna five times, and became very powerful.
Lueger was a Catholic politician and member of a Lutheran Christian party. Karl Lueger
made cynical use of anti-Semitic slogans, blamed the Jews for Vienna's problems and roused anti-Semitic fervor in the crowds,
while in private he still had a number of (rich) Jewish friends and dined at their houses.
From 1905 on, Hitler lived in Vienna, and
Lueger strongly influenced Adolf Hitler, who claims in Mein Kampf that he learned anti-Semitism from Lueger.
This was the atmosphere in which rationality could grow (surviving in Lutheran dominated Vienna asked for making choices without emotion).
Positivism florished in Europe until around 1950. Its main attraction was it anit metaphysicism.
Without realizing the logical positivists replaced a belief in metaphysical 'spirit/soul' with an even more dogmatic belief in
metaphysical 'mind/ratio'. Positivist treated 'understanding' as a property, and not as trainable and cultural BEHAVIOR.
Because most famous positivists immigrated
to the US between 1935 and 1950 very
positivistic tendencies were seen in the US the rest of the century.
Very different ideas came from Critical Theory (former 'Frankfurt School' members like Adorno, Horkheimer and especially Marcuse).
But in an conservative America still strongly influenced by forces like Klu Klux Klan, Edgar Hoover and other extreme right,
these 'social liberal' voices were easily disqualified as 'communist'. And such thinkers had to take care not to end in prison,
helped by someone like senator McCarthy.
Prominant members were Moritz Schlick ('unreligious' son from a family of German Protestant nobility) and Rudolf Carnap ('unreligious' son of profoundly Protestant parents).
Carnap emphasized the necessity of using artificial languages (the rules of logic) in philosophy,
without realizing that he was designing tautologies (proving logic with simular logic)
.
Carnap must have been very 'rational' (living in a virtual world without emotions)
and is known to have said that he was not SURE that his wife existed (he saw himself as chess pawn in a game;
Maybe there was no link at all, but his wife committed suicide.
Logical positivism in the US developed in three phases: the first Vienna Circle from about 1907;
the second Vienna Circle, from the mid-1920s until about 1933; and the American immigrant phase after Hitler came to power
The importance of the Vienna Circle was changing philosophy from glibbery talk into more consistancy.
The extremely negative influence of Positivism was the considering of the flimsy world 'rationality' (mind) as all of reality,
and emotionless reducing life to a 'dictatorship of reason'. Worlds of 'rational' values where Batman and Superman are as real as any living human.
Reductionism
Someone like Kurt Godel may have demasked positivism in math, but certainly not in social science.
In the US that resulted in an extreme belief in the 'makebility of society' and overdone trust
in 'the individual', in money and computers . Dictatorship of Management.
In Social Science developed a very influential 'positivist research paradigm'.
The positivist paradigm of exploring social reality emphasizes observation and 'reason' as
means of 'understanding' human behaviour. Positivistic thinkers adopt
'rational research' as 'rational knowledge' generation.
True knowledge is seen as based on 'rational' experience and can be obtained
by 'rational'observation and 'rational'experiment. ... A bit simplistic.
Use of math in social science was heavily stimulated, especially in and after WWII.
This positivist spirit caused the explosion of Operations Research.
Much to easy math was used for problems that were largely social,
and couldn't be expressed in easy math functions.
This resulted in further neglect of the huge not 'rational' side of
social behavior.
Everything, from the effectivity of bombing towns
to countrywide economic problem, was simplified to smooth 'rational' functions,
to be 'optimized'.
Positivism must be seen within the framework of 'rational science'.
These assumptions are determinism/objectivism, empiricism, 'rationality', and presuming 1 design
behind nature.
The defeat of Subjectivity
The rise of positivism in America is a political story:
Famous European positivist (most of them from Vienna)
escaped Nazi persecution by immigrating to America.
They were philosophers of science, so in their new home country they introduced
a 'science' that 'explained' what went wrong in Germany/Austria.
Their positivist view was that science needed to return
to use of 'rational logic'. These Positivists worshipped
an individualist 'rational' science far from social considerations.
Positivism occupied itself with looking with 'rational' logic and 'critical rationalism' at 'scientific' knowledge
Especially all not 'rational' phenonomena suffered because of its onesided 'rationality'.
Those who supported Positivism strongly relied on 'rational' reasoning and 'rational' experience. A kind of very early 'nerds'.
It must have been extremely frustrating as common sense person to debate with these guys because they only accepted 'rationality' as debating language.
They used a kind of mathematical reasoning and their own (rational) experience.
They banned traditional myths to replace them by almost wizardlike scientific reasoning en experiments that declared
anything untrue if not 'rational'.
The 'physics envy' in the 'life-sciences' did disappear, but the damage was near to fatal.
There has been a fatal mismatch between the subrealities of the 'problems'
and the virtual worlds of 'rational' analysis.
Common Sense is the way to handle subrealities.
In contrast, programming is 'reduction' and deals with filtering and simplifying context
and breaking down complex puzzles into simple 'rational' subproblems that can then be programmed
as 'rational subroutines in 'rational' logic machines (computers).
Quote: Programming is the most Reductionist profession there is and has
therefore mainly attracted the kinds of
minds that favor Reductionist approaches.
That means that the most complex 'procedure' on earth (Common Sense)
was being attacked by the most Reductionist researchers in the world.
And that awfully reductionist 'politicians' got dangerously much influence.
This is a catastrophal mismatch, dictatorship of reason.
Reductionists assume that the endlessly complex world of physics can be reduced to
'simple' 'rational' logic.
This explaining of brain steered behavior with 'mind'
is still creationism disguised. Reductionists hold
that brainfed behavior can be reduced to the 'mind'.
Dualists hold that the mental is irreducible.
Especially social science, but in fact all of western science, is in complete paradigm paralysis
.
Operations Research
During World War II the mathematical discipline Operation Research was formed
and became very influential in the US (with dubious 'optimizations' like dropping nuclear bombs on Japan).
After WWII in the US the operations research approach was introduced in social science and econonomy.
The approach of seeing economy as 'optimizing of profit' and as 'power tool', instead of as trade tool, is typical for 'Operations Research'.
To see money as 'investment tool' instead of as trade tool for
stimulating trade is also 'Operations Research'.
Henk Tuten: I remember as Dutch student in 1973 of the brandnew of American origin discipline in math
'Operations Research', that especially the use of OR in social science and economy I saw as dangerous
nonsense. By using mathematical sense. For me it was reason to study Social Science AFTER
unemotional Operations Research.
In the meantime in 2010 the OR approach disappeared in industry because of being totally unuseful
(apart from the tool 'simulation'). But social science and government were totally 'addicted',
resulting in crazy procedures and an overdose of bureaucracy.
Once Logical Positivism came to America, it served as excuse for a range of social theories
growing out of Operations Research. And it transformed 'science'.
Through dominance of the US in Europe positivism returned in the 'Old World' in new shape (rationalism and capitalism).
Henk Tuten: Born after Europe WWII I saw how this deeply confused my Dutch parents, moderate protestant farmers.
They appreciated the improvements through technology (tractors, tv, refigrators) but were
sad about the destruction of social life. They saw the disappearence of robust common sense traditions, like care for parents and neighbourhood.
Impoverished and weak Europe became an outpost
of the US Empire with obedient 2nd rate politicians.
Diplomacy of Cold War based on Power
The reductionist attitude in American leading circles (captains of US-industry, generals of US-army, and protestant church leaders)
resulted in a diplomacy of Cold War (2 big Cold Wars and many minor ones).
Purely based on power and the assumption of the existence of 1 'rational' truth.
The aim of US diplomacy in the major cold war with Russia
was not to come to a joint common sense (based on equality),
but to maintain a power balance while coming as close
to THE 'rational' truth, i.e. as close as possible to
the US position (because Russia was presumed to be in a 'rationally' FALSE state)..
To reach an outcome that was for over 90% the US standpoint.
The Truman Doctrine: the policy of the United States to support
pro America peoples who were directly or indirectly fighting Russia and China.
Russia and China were seen as 'totalitarian regimes',
and totally corrupt America as a 'paradise of freedom'.
ANYTHING was allowed (that is for America), murder theft lies and blackmail.
Because: Law is reason without emotion
The world wide aim of the US diplomacy became to bring THE Truth everywhere.
Obviously US industry was part of that truth
Without being cynical, a mix of unemotional positivism, the ex Nazi Wernher von Braun, Edgar Hoover, the Wallstreet Jungle, Cowboy Mentality and severe Protestantism is, in any viewpoint, asking for trouble.
Von Braun was first director of NASA, 1960 -1970. And leader of Project America that designed
the InterContinental Ballistic Missile,
Edgar Hoover was director FBI fom 1924 to 1972 and moulded his FBI to a kind of maffia.
Chess Pawns in a Game of Rational Goals
Use of human made 'ratio' and neglect of evolution made 'intuition' creates a Rational Word full of chess pawns driven by 'rational' motives.
This kind of reality can be simulated as a wargame or whatever 'rational' game on a gamebox (have a look at the crime serie Numbers).
Rational rules are simple and not complex subrealities like 'taking care of your family and neighbourhood'.
Anything is possible in a 'rational game' (even genocide; see Cambodja or Ruanda), but the game always ends in a loop (end of change).
Optimizing 'rational goals', is l'art pour l'art, and might end anywhere.
After WWII positivism in the US found a world 'with a killer mentality' (very 'rational').
Here was no Franz Kafka who recognized the madness of 'rationality' in Austrian Vienna.
Here were people like McCarthy, Edgar Hoover, Wernher von Braun, Rockefellers, Morgans, ....
And here was IBM, champion in optimizing 'rational goals.
After 60 years this resulted in the US in a paranoid Rational World where for a happy few getting rich has more value than taking care of your parents.
Taking care of parents became dumping them in a nursery home.
Respecting neighbours is replaced by War on Terrorism
Europe rapidly follows, as does Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, ....
A world with billions of unhappy people, and a few bored semi-gods.
Time to jump to new behavior, paradigm shift
Quotes of Moritz Schlick + Rudolp Carnap
Quotes Rudolph Carnap:
In science there are no 'depths'; there is surface everywhere.
Henk Tuten: a 'rational' surface'?
Logic is the last scientific ingredient of Philosophy;
its extraction leaves behind only a confusion of non-scientific, pseudo problems.
Henk Tuten: ooh, the endless complexity outside 'rationality' is only chaos.
we should make a distinction between two kinds of readjustment in the case of a conflict with experience,
namely, between a change in the language, and a mere change in or addition of, a truth-value ascribed to
an indeterminate statement (i.e. a statement whose truth value is not fixed by the rules of language,
say by the postulates of logic, mathematics and physics).
A change of the first kind constitutes a radical alteration, sometimes a revolution, and it occurs only at certain historically decisive points in the development of science.
On the other hand, changes of the second kind occur every minute. A change of the first kind constitutes, strictly speaking,
a transition from a language Ln into a new language Ln+1.
Henk Tuten: A wise observation. But the act of placing communication (a language) between sense-experience and behavior is a conflict in itself.
Whereas Frege had the strongest influence on me in the fields of logic and semantics, in my philosophical thinking in general
I learned most from Bertrand Russell. In the winter of 1921 I read his book, Our Knowledge of the External World,
as a Field For Scientific Method in Philosophy. Some passages made an especially vivid impression on me because they
formulated clearly and explicitly a view of the aim and method of philosophy which I had implicitly held for some time.
In the Preface he speaks about "the logical-analytic method of philosophy" and refers to Frege's work as the first
complete example of this method. And on the very last pages of the book he gives a summarizing characterization of
this philosophical method in the following words: I felt as if this appeal had been directed to me personally.
To work in this spirit would be my task from now on! And indeed henceforth the application of the new logical instrument
for the purposes of analyzing scientific concepts and of clarifying philosophical problems has been the essential
aim of my philosophical activity.
Henk Tuten: Frege: a hero of 'rational' logic, Russell: 'logical atomism'. Only young Wittgenstein: tractatus.
Quotes of Moritz Schlick:
The only alternative that confronts us is thus: order or disorder?
Causality and law are identical with order; irregularity and chance are identical with disorder.
Henk Tuten: a destructive logic is 'order' too. Fascism worships 'order'.
philosophy is not a science, that is, it is not a system of propositions
Henk Tuten: is logic not 'science?.
The meaning of a proposition is the method of its verification.
Henk Tuten: oops.
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