Empiricism's Magic: On the Therapy of Logical Analysis

Modern analytical empiricism, a transatlantic philosophical tradition that encompasses the work of Bertrand Russell, Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, and W. V. Quine, is often viewed as a dry, technical form of philosophy reserved only for specialists in mathematical logic and the philosophy of science. Against this view, I draw on the interpretive framework of “philosophical spirituality” to argue that the analytical practices of the modern empiricists hinged on a therapeutic view of logical analysis and the reduction of knowledge to sense experience. The tools and techniques of logical analysis, I shall claim, were often employed to dispel metaphysical quandaries and to cultivate in the philosopher an attitude of sobriety and exactitude based on a careful reconstruction of empirical experience.