[HPS_EST] Workshop: Logical Empiricism and American Pragmatism on Values and Democracy | June 15-17

Workshop: Logical Empiricism and American Pragmatism on Values and Democracy June 15 (afternoon), 16, & 17, 2025. University of Vienna Venue: SR 3A (Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna) No registration needed. Everyone is invited to attend. Sunday, June 15 14:00–15:00 Christian Damböck (University of Vienna): Toward a Shift in Narrative: Carnap, Dewey, and Lewis on Values and Practical Decisions. 15:30–16:30 Sander Verhaegh (Tilburg University): Pragmatism and Logical Empiricism on Values: A Cultural Analysis 17:00–18:00 Christoph Limbeck-Lilienau (University of Vienna): Dewey versus Stevenson on Values 18:30–19:30 Cheryl Misak (University of Toronto): The Battle over Value: Dewey and the Unity of Science Monday, June 16 10:00-11:00 Thomas Uebel (University of Manchester): The Scientific World-Conception Reconstituted and Compared with Dewey's Theory of Valuation 11:30–12:30 Claudia Cristalli (Tilburg University): Being "of service to man in his characteristic activity as a valuer": the scientific study of values in Charles W. Morris 14:30–15:30 Roberto Gronda (University of Pisa): Abraham Kaplan and the American axiological tradition 16:00–17:00 Lucas Baccarat (University of Vienna): Bentley and Neurath on Experience 17:30–18:30 Alan Richardson (University of British Columbia): Pluralisms in the US 1900-1950 and Horace Kallen's criticism of Neurath Tuesday, June 17 10:00-11:00 Georg Schiemer (University of Vienna): Carnap and Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law 11:30–12:30 Flavia Padovani (Drexel University): Hans Reichenbach and C.I. Lewis on the pragmatic a priori 14:30–15:30 Friedrich Stadler (University of Vienna): Harvard 1939: The Interaction of European and American Pragmatism 16:00–17:00 Matthias Neuber (University of Mainz): Philipp Frank on Values, Democracy, and the "Humanistic Background of Science" 17:30–18:30 Adam Tuboly (Hungarian Academy of Science): From General Education in a Free Society to Science in a Free Society: Nagel, Kuhn, and Feyerabend While previous research at the Institute Vienna Circle has focused mainly on the encounters between American pragmatism and logical empiricism in the European context in the decades before and after 1900, this workshop will be devoted to developments in the United States between the 1930s and 1960s. In addition, the workshop will focus on the philosophy of values, law, and democracy as developed in the exchanges and sometimes conflicts between key members of the logical empiricist movement, including Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Hans Reichenbach, and Hans Kelsen, on the one hand, and pragmatists such as C.I. Lewis, John Dewey, Ernest Nagel, Abraham Kaplan, and Charles Morris, on the other. Here, broad agreement on the understanding of science and democracy is accompanied by sometimes sharp disagreement on the philosophy of values, more precisely, the tension between non-cognitivism and verificationism regarding values. The aim of this workshop is not only to reconstruct these tensions, but also to contextualize them historically, to try to resolve them systematically, and to build bridges to the contemporary discourse on the philosophy of law, politics, and deliberative democracy. On the other side of the political spectrum, the liberal discourse in the US is compared to the fascist discourse on politics and law as it developed in Europe, and in particular in Nazi Germany. Literature: Christian Damböck (2025), "Noncognitive Deliberation. The Political Legacy of Logical Empiricism", Erkenntnis. <https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-024-00911-7> https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-024-00911-7 David Dyzenhaus (2023), The Long Arc of Legality. Hobbes, Kelsen, Hart, CUP. Christoph Limbeck-Lilienau (2010), "Rudolf Carnap und die Philosophie in Amerika. Logischer Empirismus, Pragmatismus, Realismus", Friedrich Stadler (ed.): Vertreibung, Transformation und Rückkehr der Wissenschaftstheorie, Lit Verlag, 85-164. Giovanni Maddalena and Friedrich Stadler (eds.) (2019), European Pragmatism, in: European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, <https://doi.org/10.4000/ejpap.1459> https://doi.org/10.4000/ejpap.1459. Cheryl Misak (2000), Truth, Politics, Morality. Pragmatism and Deliberation, Routledge. Cheryl Misak (2015), The American Pragmatists, OUP. Sami Pihlström, Friedrich Stadler, and Niels Weidtmann (eds.) (2017), Logical Empiricism and Pragmatism, Springer. George Reisch (2005), How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science. To the Icy Slopes of Logic, CUP. Alan Richardson (2003), "Logical Empiricism, American Pragmatism, and the Fate of Scientific Philosophy in North America", Gary Hardcastle and Alan Richardson (eds.), Logical Empiricism in North America, University of Minnesota Press, 1-24. Alan Richardson (2007), "Carnapian Pragmatism", Michael Friedman and Richard Creath (eds.): The Cambridge Companion to Carnap, CUP, 295-315. Thomas Uebel (2015), "American Pragmatism and the Vienna Circle: The Early Years", JHAP 3:3, 1-35. Sander Verhaegh (2020), "Coming to America: Carnap, Reichenbach and the Great Intellectual Migration. Part I: Rudolf Carnap/Part II: Hans Reichenbach", JHAP 8:11, 1-47. Organizers: Lucas Baccarat, Christian Damböck, and Christoph Limbeck-Lilienau Hosts: Institute Vienna Circle, Vienna Circle Society Language: English