WHAT IS LOGICAL EMPIRICISM?
77
eaning of statements and terms consists of their operational develop–
ent and of processes of transformation within the subject matter to
hich they claim relevance. All terms of discourse must certify their
ertinence to any inquiry by establishing their competence in direct–
ng
such operations and transformations.
The concepts of value, interest and purpose are ·no exceptions.
U
they have meanings in social science, they must indicate modes of
behavior and interaction within the social nexus. But they can do this
Cllly
if
they are-as logical empiricism requires-reducible to ob–
~tmtion.
This requirement is central to the principles of
physicalism
ICCOrding to which a scientific language in which all terms are re–
ducible to observation
is
sufficient for the analysis of all natural and
IJcial
phenomena. In this principle logical
empirici~m
states the cog–
aitive content of the materialistic metaphysics of Marxism.
Marxism as an empirical social
science
is
also Marxism as a
'ltlhod
of revolutionary action. This relation between systemic
limce and practical method
is
not peculiar to Marxism. Every sig–
Eicant social theory states implicity a method of social action. This
i
the practical bearing of the logical empiricist analysis of meaning.
1he
need for social action demands that social science be unencum–
~
by doctrines which have no active, operative significance. To
6i
end logical empiricism offers a powerful critique which has re–
fllkdly proved its effectiveness in the analysis of natural science,
.. whose full advantages still await realization in the field of
esthetic-~~,
and political thought.
