What is Logical Positivism?

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The essence of logical positivism resides in a belief that "the meaning of every statement of science must be statable by reduction to a statement about the given."  The basis of logical positivism is one in which individuals accept that scientific observation takes priority over all else.  It is a branch of philosophy that embraces scientific analysis, rigor in substantiation of being with empirical evidence, and discredits phenomena that cannot be directly experienced.  Logical positivism stresses that any scientific theory that can is to be embraced is a form of thought that is able to withstand scientific scrutiny and analysis.  Logical positivism is rooted in this constant test for validity and verifiability.  Consequences associated with empiricism were absolute markers for what would constitute truth.

In this, logical positivism became an antidote for the methods of thought that emerged in the first half of the 20th Century in Europe.  It was a form of thought that validated scientific expression as its own intrinsic notion of good, able to verify and validate the conditions of truth that human beings were believed to have sought and craved.


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