Hence, like Ludwig Wittgenstein in the
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, they held that most of the statements to be found in traditional philosophy are not false but nonsensical. The verifiability principle, it was maintained, demonstrates the impossibility of metaphysics, and from this it was concluded that empirical science is the only method by which we can have knowledge concerning the world.
The verifiability principle stands historically in a line of direct descent from the empiricism of David Hume, J. S. Mill, and Ernst Mach. It has some affinities with pragmatism and operationalism, but it differs from them in some important respects. Pragmatism, as presented by C. S. Peirce, William James, and John Dewey, is the view that the "intellectual purport" of any symbol consists entirely in the practical effects, both on our conduct and on our experiences, that would follow from "acceptance of the symbol." This view, unlike the verifiability principle, makes the meaning of a sentence relative to certain human interests and purposes and to the behavior adopted for the realization of these purposes. Operationalism, as held by P. W. Bridgman and others, is the view that the meaning of a term is simply the set of operations that must be performed in order to apply the term in a given instance.
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