Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Robert Neidorf

Critical Essay by Robert Neidorf

SOURCE: "Discussion: Is Einstein a Positivist?" in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 30, No. 2, April, 1963, pp. 173-88.

In the following essay, which originally appeared as part of a doctoral dissertation presented at Yale University in 1959, Neidorf considers whether or not Einstein's theories fit a positivistic epistemology.

There are in fact two cases to be decided, one textual and one technical. The textual question: Does Einstein, in his thinking and writing about the philosophy of science, advocate a positivistic (or empiricist) position? Most of the literature on this subject, both by Einstein and by commentators, turns on the special theory of relativity; accordingly, the discussion which follows will be oriented mostly towards that theory. The technical question: Does Einstein's work, particularly his presentation of the special theory of relativity with its associated critique of classical physics, commit one to a positivistic philosophy of science? I begin with the latter...
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