The Positions of Schlick and Carnap on Ethics

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Published: Mar 25, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/ethiki.22668
Keywords:
Logical Positivism; Moritz Schlick; Rudolf Carnap; Vienna Circle; Verification Principle; Emotivism; Meta-ethics; Anti-metaphysics
Kostoula Papadatou
Abstract

This article examines the ethical perspectives of Moritz Schlick and Rudolf Carnap, two leading figures of the Vienna Circle and Logical Positivism. The author argues that while the Vienna Circle did not develop a unified system of moral philosophy, their views were shaped by a commitment to "purifying" science from metaphysics through the verification principle. The study contrasts Schlick’s naturalistic approach—which views ethics as a branch of psychology or sociology concerned with the factual motives of human behavior—with Carnap’s more radical stance. Carnap argues that ethical judgments are not meaningful propositions but rather commands or expressions of feeling (emotivism) that cannot be empirically verified. The paper explores how these positions challenged traditional meta-ethics and influenced the shift toward logical analysis of language in the 20th century.

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