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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

184878

Dilthey and Carnap

the feeling of life, the scientific worldview, and the elimination of metaphysics

Eric Sean Nelson

pp. 321-346

Abstract

In this chapter the author examines how Dilthey's philosophy formed part of the background of the Vienna Circle's project of eliminating metaphysics and justifying a scientific life-stance (Lebenshaltung). Dilthey had promoted empirical scientific inquiry and critiqued metaphysics as an indemonstrable attitude rooted in a "feeling of life" (Lebensgefühl) and articulated as a "worldview." Concepts of the feeling of life, worldview, and life-stance were mobilized to confront traditional authority while emphasizing the priority of experience and a more critical and experimental scientific and artistic spirit. Carnap adopted elements from Dilthey's critique and sensitivity to the possibility of a logic of the singular and the historical. Carnap's early project can be interpreted as a logical empiricist hermeneutics promoting the task of pragmatic formation, cultivation, and education (Bildung) that furthers life by elucidating it.

Publication details

Published in:

Feichtinger Johannes, Fillafer Franz L. , Surman Jan (2018) The worlds of positivism: a global intellectual history, 1770–1930. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 321-346

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-65762-2_12

Full citation:

Nelson Eric Sean (2018) „Dilthey and Carnap: the feeling of life, the scientific worldview, and the elimination of metaphysics“, In: J. Feichtinger, F. Fillafer & J. Surman (eds.), The worlds of positivism, Dordrecht, Springer, 321–346.