Why Czech positivism could not be absorbed by logical positivism

Miloš Kratochvil

pp. 33-50

in: Radek Schuster (ed), The Vienna circle in Czechoslovakia, Berlin, Springer, 2020

Abstract

Although logical positivism is geographically connected to the Czech territory in the period of its birth and early development, it did not leave a noticeable mark on Czech philosophy. This may seem peculiar, since positivism was conceived as a Czech national philosophy. One would thus expect that the later versions of positivism would become easily and firmly established within Czech philosophy. This, however, did not happen, which meant the philosophy of the Vienna Circle was not assimilated into Czech positivism. For an explanation, we must look back to the main features of Czech positivism and of its evolution. Czech positivism was not primarily a philosophy of science, neither was it limited to being analysed as such. The task of Czech positivist philosophy was to provide a consistent, complete and scientifically based conception of the world, inclusive of political and moral values.