Language, Truth, and Logic and the Anglophone reception of the Vienna Circle

A. J. Ayer’s Language, Truth, and Logic had been responsible for introducing the Vienna Circle’s ideas, developed within a Germanophone framework, to an Anglophone readership. Inevitably, this migration from one context to another resulted in the alteration of some of the concepts being transmitted. Such alterations have served to facilitate a number of false impressions of Logical Empiricism from which recent scholarship still tries to recover. In this paper, I will attempt to point to the ways in which LTL has helped to foster the various mistaken stereotypes about Logical Empiricism which were combined into the received view. I will begin by examining Ayer’s all too brief presentation of an Anglocentric lineage for his ideas. This lineage, as we shall see, simply omits the major 19th century Germanophone influences on the rise of analytic philosophy. The Germanophone ideas he presents are selectively introduced into an Anglophone context, and directed towards various concerns that arose within that context. I will focus on the differences between Carnap’s version of the overcoming of metaphysics, and Ayer’s reconfiguration into what he calls the elimination of metaphysics. Having discussed the above, I will very briefly outline the consequences that Ayer’s radicalisation of the Vienna Circle’s doctrines had on the subsequent Anglophone reception of Logical Empiricism

Philosophy and/or politics? Two trajectories of philosophy after the great war and their contamination

In this chapter, I revisit the question of the philosophical significance of the Great War upon the trajectory of philosophy in the twentieth century. While accounts of this are very rare in philosophy, and this is itself symptomatic, those that are given are also strangely implausible. They usually assert one of two things: that the War had little or no philosophical significance (because most of the major developments had already begun prior to the war), or— at the opposite extreme—they maintain that nothing was ever the same in philosophy (as elsewhere). On the latter view, the creation of the so-called analytic-continental ‘divide’ is but one notable philosophical consequence of the Great War. I want here to attempt to steer a middle-way between these positions, both having a grain of truth but over-playing their respective hands

Misleading Expressions: The Brentano-Ryle Connection

This chapter argues that Gilbert Ryle’s account of misleading expressions, which is rightly considered a milestone in the history of analytic philosophy, is continuous with Brentano’s. Not only did they identify roughly the same classes of misleading expressions, but their analyses are driven by a form of ontological parsimony which sharply contrasts with rival views in the Brentano School, like those of Meinong and Husserl. Section 1 suggests that Ryle and Brentano share a similar notion of analysis. Section 2 spells out the notion of misleading expression by means of the surface-grammar/truth-conditions distinction, which I argue is implicit in their accounts. Section 3 zooms in on a specific class of misleading expressions, namely expressions about ficta. Finally, Section 4 draws the consequences of what precedes for a correct understanding of the notion of meaning

FESTER: A propagation experiment, overview and first results

A long term field trial called FESTER (First European South African Transmission Experiment) has been conducted by an international collaboration of research organizations during the course of almost one year at False Bay, South Africa. Main objectives of the experiment are a better insight into atmospherical effects on propagation of optical radiation, a deeper understanding of the effects of (marine) aerosols on transmission, and the connection of the mentioned effects to the general meteorological and oceanographic conditions/parameters. Modelling of wakes and possible infrared-radar synergy effects are further points of interest. The duration of one year ensures the coverage of most of the relevant meteorological conditions during the different seasons. While some measurements have been performed by permanent installations, others have been performed during intensive observation periods (IOP). These IOPs took place every two to three months to ensure seasonal changes. The IOPs lasted two weeks. We will give an overview of the general layout of the experiment and report on first results. An outlook on the planned analysis of the acquired data, which includes linkage to the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF), will be given

The FESTER field trial

An overview is given of the First European – South African Transmission ExpeRiment (FESTER), which took place in South Africa, over the False Bay area, centered around Simon’s Town. The experiment lasted from April 2015 through February 2016 and involved continuous observations as well as periodic observations that took place during four Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs) of 2 weeks each, which were spread over the year. The continuous observations aimed at a characterization of the electro-optical propagation environment, and included standard meteorology, aerosol, refraction and turbulence measurements. The periodic observations aimed at assessing the performance of electro-optical sensors in VIS / SWIR / MWIR and LWIR wavebands by following a boat sailing outbound and inbound tracks. In addition, dynamic aspects of electro-optical signatures, i.e., the changes induced by variations in the environment and/or target orientation, were studied. The present paper provides an overview of the trial, and presents a few first results