Meta-ethics
contributions from Vienna and Warsaw
pp. 165-190
in: Klemens Szaniawski (ed), The Vienna circle and the Lvov-Warsaw school, Berlin, Springer, 1989Abstract
When I received the invitation to this conference, I decided to search for some clarification of problems that have bothered me quite a long time. A first complex of problems has to do with the Vienna Circle: According to the scientific, physicalistic, or empiristic world-view of the members of the Vienna Circle, ethics is not a science: What were the meta-ethical arguments and assumptions that led to this claim? Was there one dominating position or were there more of them? How do we evaluate them today after 50 years? There is a second complex of similar questions concerning the Lvov-Warsaw School: What were the meta-ethical beliefs of the members of this school? How were they related to those of their Viennese colleagues and what can we learn from them today?