Through Science to Philosophy

Abstract

PROF. H. DINGLE here expounds a philosophy of science on a purely phenomenalist basis. It is the kind of philosophy that no one believes in except at the moment of philosophizing, and for that reason is difficult to work out systematically without lapsing into more ordinary ways of thinking. Nevertheless, the effort is worth while as providing a test case. We can discover the primary assumptions necessarily presupposed in scientific thought only by the method of working out extreme theories which try to dispense with or contradict common assumptions. In the reviewer's opinion, some of Prof. Dingle's assumptions are wrong and his theory will not work, but he has made a valuable contribution to thought in that he has developed this type of theory more clearly and consistently than others who have put forward phenomenalist or positivist views. In particular, it is far better than the efforts of those who call themselves Logical Positivists, who have so entangled themselves in an impossible logical or linguistic theory that they never get so far as to discuss anything of interest.

Through Science to Philosophy

By Prof. Herbert Dingle. Pp. vii + 364. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1937.) 15s. net.