Logical positivism was born out of a movement known as the 'Vienna circle'. Members of this movement completely relied on science and rejected everything that couldn't be proved to be true, i.e anything metaphysical for instance.
From this movement logical positivism was born. Logical positivists work on a theory called the verification principle. Basically they believe that anything that cannot be verified cannot be trusted and should be completly rejected. Something must be true independently and could be codified in a scientific manner in order for it to be verified. In this, logical positivists largely rejected anything metaphysical, as these were merely essences or assertions they could not be verified or codified and therefore could not be trusted. They were not rejected as being wrong, merely not as having a meaning.
HOWEVER, there are criticisms of this theory. Karl popper, one of the most influencial characters in philosophy destroyed the verification principle claiming it to be ridiculous as it could not be verified to be correct or true itself! This meant that in the eyes of Karl popper, if he was a logical positivist the verification principle is merely an assertion of what could prove something to be true (if that makes any sense!)
A lot of philosophical theories are based on assertions, for instance Sigmeund Freud's theory on the ID being the repressed part of the ego and causing the animal urges could be completely rejected, as the ID cannot be bottled and examined to be the 'caveman' part of the brain.
I think a lot of this applies to journalism today in that Journalism in news can only be based on fact, completely accurate fact. Anything else that cannot be verified is merely dismissed as comment, and as I know from doing journalism, comment can NOT be trusted! Just like the logical positivists!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete