Eino Kaila and the vienna circle

Ilkka Niiniluoto

pp. 185-199

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

Abstract

Eino Kaila (1890–1958) was the leading Finnish philosopher in the first half of the twentieth century. During the time he sought personal contact with Hans Reichenbach, Moritz Schlick, and Rudolf Carnap, he had already in 1926 formulated his own position of "logical empiricism". For Kaila, philosophy is "the alpha and omega of science": philosophical reflection has to be based upon the results of the best current work in physics, biology, and psychology. Even though Kaila was a consistent critic of metaphysics, who admired exact methods in philosophy, his philosophical passion to solve the riddle of reality differed from the program of logical positivists and later analytic philosophers of language. As a result, his encounter with the Vienna Circle in his visits in 1929, 1932, and 1934 was dramatic, even stormy.

Cited authors

Schlick Moritz

Carnap Rudolf

Reichenbach Hans

Kaila Eino