M. Ied Al Munir, lecturer from IAIN Sultan Thaha Saifuddin in Jambi, Sumatera, earned doctorate in Philosophy of UGM on Tuesday (19/7) in the Auditorium of C Building of Faculty of Philosophy. He defended his dissertaton entitled Concept of Meaning in Logical Positivism of Alfred Jules Ayer: Implications to Philosophy Development san Knowledge.
Logical positivism of environment is established in Vienna, then introduced and passed on by Alfred Jules Ayer in the UK. He tried to find the right formula to the verification principle to resolve environment problems in Vienna.
Starting on this, M. Ied Al Munir conducted a research to find, describe, and reflect the concept of meaning in the logical positivism of Alfred Jules Ayer. Ied also tried to describe and find the implications of the logical positivism.
“My research is trying to observe the weakness and strengths of logical positivism of Alfred Jules Ayer,” said Ied.
Ied found out that the direct implications that are unavoidable from Ayer’s logical positivism through verification principle is the the elimination of methaphysics. The implication does not stop there. “Rejection to metaphysics is just the start to an even wider implication, particularly to the ethical and teological issues,” said Ied.
Ied added that the most basic influence of the verification principle to knowledge is unification of sciences in one roof, which is physics (physicalism). “The effort for science unification last long, especially in Vienna,” he said.
Furthermore, Ied explained that the verification principle also affects the scientific method, that is procedures that cover acts of thinking, work pattern, technical ways, and steps to get available knowledge. “The influence to scientific method is for example that verification the scientific method should not only come in indirect empirical verification or merely principally,” he added.
If logical positivism has weaknesss, these stemmed from the force to apply physics parameters to other disciplines of science, especially philosophy. Ied said, however, physicalism is also seen as the start to the growth of new awareness on the importance of methodology as an early assumption which comes as a background for various scientific events.