"Logical positivism grew from the discussions of a group called the 'First Vienna Circle' which gathered at the Café Central before World War I" (Ref.2). After the war One of the main characters associated with the movement Moritz Schlick came to Vienna.
Moritz Schlick, was interested in theoretical physics and philosophy in particular. Bertrand Russel, the inventor of consequentialism which could be partly applied in theories of Nietzsche as well even though he is discredited with all schools of philosophy of communication at this stage(being good and following moral rules having respect for human condition). Russel is an empiric and so Solipsism is some sort of danger for him, the type of his logical refutation of solipsism is for example that nothing can be verified and nothing at all is true and nothing can be said, even including this thought. Another persona worth mentioning was Wittgenstein who studied philosophy of language. He rejected the traditional thinking of languages as a mean of conveying information which would normally mislead people. For him, communicating facts id only one of the things that the language does and it's not the main thing either. He says that "there is no logic in language, language is just people emoting." (Ref.1)
"Logical positivism (also called logical empiricism and neo-positivism) is a school of philosophy that combines empiricism – the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world – with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions in epistemology." Estimology is a theory of knowledge which is "a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge."(Ref.3) Logical Positivists base their knowledge on scientific research, important is logical side of knowing things through empirical experiences.
Falsificationism, theory by Karl Popper brings another side to Verification Principle saying that if the opposite of idea that can be independently verified is false then the original idea must be false too, meaning that not only the original idea but also the opposite tho the idea must be independently verified and that is when the idea itself is fully true. What he takes from classical logic is the principle of non-contradiction which in itself is in fact both verifiable and falsifiable.
"There is nothing beyond the world of perception", Hume (Ref.1)
The most important aspect of the movement is Verification Principle (Freddy Ayer-Language,truth and logic) which states that nothing can be accepted as true unless it can be independently verified, unless it is possible for it to be scientifically proven(eg something can be classed as a fact only if it is verifiable otherwise it is opinion).
And following that Logical positivists don't see ideologies of Hegel, Nietzsche, Kant or Marx as verifiable and therefore false.
In art and architecture, Bauhaus movement took over, drawing a line on leading thematic of desired style, which became 'Yale's glossy boxes'. Psychology was still influenced by Freud's Psychoanalysis and Social Democracy, bureaucratic, technocratic state planning dominated systems applying logical systems of analysis.
The movement was completely anti-romantic, science became a centre of attention along with all technological developments (early computers-and Verification principle is like how computer thinks) which required logical solutions through logical analysis of thought process(pragmatism and provisional truths, technical work on logic.
However, as Kant and Plato say that "there is a spirit in the world that is beyond perception". (Ref.1)
The theory that the world that depends on phenomena that are not in this world undermines the Verification Principle because Logical Positivism rejects all metaphysical. And here we can recognise the fault in the theory of Verification principle is the theory itself as the it is not scientific. Ayer says that "the method of verification is the truth of a statement". Further on, statements like God exists can not be verified either and so for Logical positivists it has no meaning, and therefore, religion is also neither true or false, but nonsense.
Economy is non-metaphysical and therefore it became one of the central areas that Logical Positivists focused on. Von Hayek and Von Mises evaluate processes like economic planning or price systems as well as the patterns of consumer spending through the supply and demand systems.
Accorging to Hayek in his book Road to Serfom, "the part of the lesson of recent past which is slowly and gradually being appreciated is that many kinds of economic planning, conducted independently on a national scale , are bound in their aggregate effect to be harmful even from a purely economic point of view, and in addition to produce serious international friction."
"That there is little hope of international order or lasting peace so long as every country is free to employ whatever measures it thinks desirable in its own immediate interest, however demaging they may be to others, needs little enphasis now."
It also has to be mentioned that "Road to Serfdom" by Hayek became an impacting critique of socialist economic planning and here again could be also seen as another metaphysical piece of literature because it touches problematic of the "market mechanism" and "the hand in the market" which are, in fact an abstract ideologies themselves. (Ref.1)
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
References:
Logical Positivism and the Vienna Circle - lecture
1. http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=102
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivism
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology
4. F.A.Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
