Philosophy of Biology in Early Logical Empiricism

Abstract

The received view of the influence of Logical Empiricism on the development of the philosophy of biology since 1960s has it that the contributions of the early philosophy of science to this new branch of philosophy are marginal if not detrimental. This perspective is due to misconceptions of some historical contexts and preconditions concerning the beginning of the philosophy of science as a distinctive discipline in the US. This paper contributes to overcoming this received view by identifying some of the main protagonists and their antagonists and the issues and the background of their debates in order to show that Logical Empiricists were interested in the “real” strands of biology for most of the movement’s lifetime.