La logique dans le Cercle de Vienne

Pierre Wagner (1)

1 IHPST - Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques

Thinking about logic in the Vienna Circle, what people usually have in mind is its use as an analytic tool aimed at criticizing metaphysics, and the idea that it offers the opportunity of a reduction of mathematics to valid sentences void of any content. What should be kept in mind, however, is that such a conception of logic had not been formulated before the turn of the thirties, that the members of the Vienna Circle had a whole range of different views about it, and that it was thought as a program yet to be realized, not as a series of theses dogmatically stated. From 1924 to 1936, the issue of the nature of logic and the methodological use that could be made of it was the focus of many debates among the members of the Circle, who sometimes revised in a radical way their ideas about it. There is actually nothing such as the philosophy of logic of the Vienna Circle but a complicated history of evolving ideas they have maintained about logic.

Sur la logique dans le Cercle de Vienne, on se contente souvent de retenir son usage comme outil analytique dans le projet d’une critique de la métaphysique et l’idée qu’elle ouvrirait la voix d’une réduction des mathématiques à des énoncés valides vides de sens. On risque alors d’oublier qu’une telle conception de la logique n’a pas été formulée avant le tournant des années trente, que tous les membres du Cercle ne lui ont pas donné le même sens ni la même importance, et qu’elle était pensée comme un programme à réaliser, non comme une série de thèses dogmatiquement affirmées. De 1924 à 1936, la question de la nature et de la fonction de la logique fut l’objet de nombreux débats au sein du Cercle, dont histoire est marquée sur ce point par une série de révisions parfois radicales. À y regarder de près, il n’y a rien de tel que la philosophie de la logique du Cercle de Vienne mais une certaine idée de la logique dont l’évolution est en réalité assez complexe. Thinking about logic in the Vienna Circle, what people usually have in mind is its use as an analytic tool aimed at criticizing metaphysics, and the idea that it offers the opportunity of a reduction of mathematics to valid sentences void of any content. What should be kept in mind, however, is that such a conception of logic had not been formulated before the turn of the thirties, that the members of the Vienna Circle had a whole range of different views about it, and that it was thought as a program yet to be realized, not as a series of theses dogmatically stated. From 1924 to 1936, the issue of the nature of logic and the methodological use that could be made of it was the focus of many debates among the members of the Circle, who sometimes revised in a radical way their ideas about it. There is actually nothing such as the philosophy of logic of the Vienna Circle but a complicated history of evolving ideas they have maintained about logic.

Mots clés: Carnap; Cercle de Vienne; logique

Domaines: Philosophie

Pierre Wagner. La logique dans le Cercle de Vienne. Austriaca : Cahiers universitaires d'information sur l'Autriche, 2015, 78, pp.107-123. ⟨halshs-01197097⟩