Empiricism at bay?

Herbert Feigl

pp. 1-20

in: Robert S. Cohen, Mark W. Wartofsky (eds), Methodological and historical essays in the natural and social sciences, Berlin, Springer, 1974

Abstrakt

At the risk of being regarded a" square" and "reactionary" I wish to defend, explicate, reformulate and" salvage" whatever seems valuable to me in the empiricist tradition in the philosophy of science. I am fully aware of the almost hostile vogue of "beating-up" on the empiricists, a fashion that is still in full swing. My only consolation is the remark of a well-known British philosopher. When he visited us at the University of Minnesota a few years ago, he said to me: "Don't worry Feigl, if you don't catch the bus of philosophy the first time, just wait a while, it"ll come "round again!". Since I was lucky enough to catch the bus of philosophical fashion some forty years ago, I hope to be lucky once again during the rest of my "natural life".