On the Viennese background of Harvard neopragmatism

Sami Pihlström

pp. 139-166

in: Friedrich Stadler, Niels Weidtmann, Sami Pihlström (eds), Logical empiricism and pragmatism, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

The Americanization of originally European analytic philosophy, beginning with the rise of Nazism in Europe before WWII, has aptly been described as a move "from the Vienna Circle to Harvard Square" (Holton 1993). Not only logical empiricism but also later developments of analytic philosophy have had interesting links with the American tradition of pragmatism. This paper examines the "Viennese" logicalempiricist background of neopragmatism, drawing attention to the ways in which, for instance, some of Hilary Putnam's ideas can be traced back to Rudolf Carnap's logical empiricism. It will be suggested that Morton White's holistic pragmatism ought to be taken more seriously in the contemporary developments of pragmatism in (post-)analytic philosophy.

Cited authors

Carnap Rudolf

Putnam Hilary