Franz Brentano (1838-1917); Empiricism; Induction; History of Philosophy; Epistemology; Positivism; William Whewell (1794-1866); John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Abstract :
[en] This article compares and contrasts the reception of Comte’s positivism in the works of William Whewell, John Stuart Mill and (to a lesser extent) Franz Brentano. It is argued that Whewell’s rejection of positivism derives from his endorsement of (what I shall call) a constructivist account of the inductive sciences, while Mill and Brentano’s sympathies for positivism are connected to their endorsement of an empiricist account. The mandate of the article is to spell out the chief differences between these two rival accounts. In the last, conclusive section, Whewell’s anti-positivist argument is briefly assessed and rebutted.
Research Center/Unit :
Phénoménologies - ULiège Traverses - ULiège
Disciplines :
Philosophy & ethics
Author, co-author :
Dewalque, Arnaud ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de philosophie > Phénoménologies
Language :
English
Title :
The Reception of Positivism in Whewell, Mill and Brentano
Publication date :
22 August 2022
Main work title :
Brentano and the Positive Philosophy of Comte and Mill
AC | Brentano, Franz (1926): "Auguste Comte und die positive Philosophie. Erster Artikel. Einleitung. Natur der positiven Wissenschaft." In: Brentano, Franz (1869): Chilianeum. Blätter für kath. Wissenschaft, Kunst und Leben. Neue Folge. Vol. II. In: Brentano, Franz: Die vier Phasen der Philosophie. Oskar Kraus (Ed.). Leipzig: Felix Meiner, 99-133.
DP | Brentano, Franz (1982): Deskriptive Psychologie. Wilhelm Baumgartner and Roderick M. Chisholm (Eds.). Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
Brentano, Franz (1995): Descriptive Psychology. Benito Müller (Ed. and Trans.). London: Routledge.
GPhN | Brentano, Franz (1987): Geschichte der Philosophie der Neuzeit. Klaus Hedwig (Ed.). Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
Ps 53 | Brentano, Franz (1874-1875): "Psychologie (Fragment des geplanten III. Buches der Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt)." Cambridge: Houghton Library, Harvard University. Manuscript.
VE | Brentano, Franz (1970): Versuch über die Erkenntnis. 2nd ed. Alfred Kastil (Ed.). Leipzig, Felix Meiner.
CPhP lc | Comte, Auguste (1852): Cours de philosophie positive. Vol. I. Paris: Borrani et Droz.
PPAC I | Comte, Auguste (1896): The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Freely translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau, first published in 1853. Volume I. Harriet Martineau (Ed. and Trans.). London: George Bell & Sons.
CW VII | Mill, John Stuart (1974): A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation (1843). Books I-III. John M. Robson (Ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
CW X | Mill, John Stuart (1985): Auguste Comte and Positivism (1865). In: Mill, John Stuart: Essays on Ethics, Religion and Society. 2nd ed. John M. Robson (Ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 263-368.
Bergman, Hugo (1944): "Brentano's Theory of Induction." In: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 5, 281-307.
Fisette, Denis (2018): "Franz Brentano and Auguste Comte's Positive Philosophy." In: Brentano Studien 16, 73-110.
Forster, Malcolm (2011): "The Debate Between Whewell and Mill on the Nature of Scientific Induction." In: Gabbay, Dov M., Hartmann, Stephan, and Woods, John (Eds.): Handbook of the History of Logic. Vol. X: Inductive Logic. Oxford, Amsterdam: Elsevier, 93-115.
Hedwig, Klaus (1989): "Deskription. Die historischen Voraussetzungen und die Rezeption Brentanos." In: Brentano Studien 1, 31-45.
McAlister, Linda L. (Ed.) (1976): The Philosophy of Brentano. London: Duckworth.
Mill, John Stuart (1865): Auguste Comte and Positivism. London: Trübner & Co.
Quinn, Aleta (2017): "Whewell on Classification and Consilience." In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 64, 65-74.
Scarre, Geoffrey (1998): "Mill on Induction and Scientific Method." In: Skorupski, John (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Mill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 112-138.
Schmit, Roger (2002): "Brentano et le positivisme." In: Archives de Philosophie 65, 291-309.
Snyder, Laura J. (2008): "'The Whole Box of Tools': William Whewell and the Logic of Induction." In: Gabbay, Dov M. Hartmann, Stephan, and Woods, John (Eds.): Handbook of the History of Logic. Vol. IV. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 163-228.
Stumpf, Carl (1939): Erkenntnislehre. Vol. I. Leipzig: Hirzel.
Whewell, William (1840). The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. Vol. II. London: John W. Parker.
Whewell, William (1857). History of the Inductive Sciences, From the Earliest to the Present Time. Vol. III. 3rd ed. London: John W. Parker and Son.
Whewell, William (1858a): History of Scientific Ideas. Being the First Part of the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. Vol. I. 3rd ed. London: John W. Parker and Son.
Whewell, William (1858b): History of Scientific Ideas. Being the First Part of the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. Vol. II. 3rd ed. London: John W. Parker and Son.
Whewell, William (1858c): Novum Organon Renovatum. Being the Second Part of the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. 3rd ed. London: John W. Parker and Son.
Whewell, William (1860): On the Philosophy of Discovery. London: John. W. Parker and Son.
Whewell, William (1866): "Comte and Positivism." In: Macmillan's Magazine 13, 353-362.
Wilkins, John S. (2013): "Biological Essentialism and the Tidal Change of Natural Kinds." In: Science and Education 22. No. 2: 221-240.
Similar publications
Sorry the service is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later.
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. Read more
Save & Close
Accept all
Decline all
Show detailsHide details
Cookie declaration
About cookies
Strictly necessary
Performance
Strictly necessary cookies allow core website functionality such as user login and account management. The website cannot be used properly without strictly necessary cookies.
This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.
Performance cookies are used to see how visitors use the website, eg. analytics cookies. Those cookies cannot be used to directly identify a certain visitor.
Used to store the attribution information, the referrer initially used to visit the website
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Websites use cookies to help users navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. Cookies that are required for the website to operate properly are allowed to be set without your permission. All other cookies need to be approved before they can be set in the browser.
You can change your consent to cookie usage at any time on our Privacy Policy page.
