On the origins of the political philosophy of science and analytical philosophy

Abstract

The article puts forward arguments refuting the claims of some representatives of Western philosophy that we are witnessing the birth of a new direction of research within the philo­sophy of science – political philosophy of science. It is shown that, in fact, the making of political philosophy of science dates back to the activity of left wing of the Vienna Circle representatives and B.M. Hessen’s work “The Social and Economic Roots of Newton’s Me­chanics” (1931). The paper traces evolution of the views of the left wing Vienna Circle rep­resentatives who emigrated to the USA, and cooperated with the “Philosophy of Science” journal founded by the Russian emigrant V. Malisoff, the International Encyclopedia of Uni­fied Science and Association of Unified Science in the context of which analytical philoso­phy took shape, where there was no place for political philosophy of science. It is stressed that this evolution happened due to several reasons: the McCarthyism riots in the U.S. in the mid-1950’s; the death of several prominent scientists who paid attention to the politi­cal philosophy of science; the disagreement between prominent scholars in logical empiri­cism, which led to the blurring of the problems of this segment of research. Nevertheless in the European philosophy these studies have been continued. The case of modal logic en­ables to argue that sometimes the political sympathies and antipathies of scientists sig­nificantly affect their perception and assessment of colleague’s works. Attention drawn to the weak development in the history and philosophy of science of the problems associated with the impact of the political views of scientists on the reception of ideas of their political opponents. Finally, an attempt is made to outline the subject area of contemporary political philosophy of science.