Bohang Chen – författare

This book conducts a historico-critical investigation into a proposal to transform philosophy in the early twentieth century.Driven by the Great Differentiation, the emancipation of the sciences from philosophy in the nineteenth century, several early twentieth-century philosophical movements advocated the transformation of philosophy from an endeavor to unify all conceivable human knowledge into a practice focused on the logical analysis of the differentiated sciences and broader human knowledge. However, this proposal was not subsequently adopted, leading to the establishment of academic philosophy as a discipline characterized by unique philosophical problems and solutions. Drawing on a variety of sources, this book posits that the transformation proposal offers crucial insights for understanding the history of philosophy, especially at its critical turning point in the early twentieth century. Moreover, although not pursued in academic philosophy today, this proposal still offers insights for rethinking the future role of philosophy. In response to Max Weber's fundamental challenge to philosophy post-Differentiation, it is argued that logical analysis offers a viable methodological approach and that the realm of values serves as a remaining substantive domain for practical philosophy.The book will be attractive to researchers and students interested in the history of philosophy and science as well as general intellectual history.

This book conducts a historico-critical investigation into a proposal to transform philosophy in the early twentieth century.Driven by the Great Differentiation, the emancipation of the sciences from philosophy in the nineteenth century, several early twentieth-century philosophical movements advocated the transformation of philosophy from an endeavor to unify all conceivable human knowledge into a practice focused on the logical analysis of the differentiated sciences and broader human knowledge. However, this proposal was not subsequently adopted, leading to the establishment of academic philosophy as a discipline characterized by unique philosophical problems and solutions. Drawing on a variety of sources, this book posits that the transformation proposal offers crucial insights for understanding the history of philosophy, especially at its critical turning point in the early twentieth century. Moreover, although not pursued in academic philosophy today, this proposal still offers insights for rethinking the future role of philosophy. In response to Max Weber's fundamental challenge to philosophy post-Differentiation, it is argued that logical analysis offers a viable methodological approach and that the realm of values serves as a remaining substantive domain for practical philosophy.The book will be attractive to researchers and students interested in the history of philosophy and science as well as general intellectual history.

This book presents a historico-logical study of vitalism. It begins by uncovering previously unknown doctrines of vitalism from the history of science—encompassing biological, physical, and social sciences—and then subjects these doctrines to a thorough logical analysis. Through this process, the book offers a unified conceptual framework to understand the major doctrines of vitalism in the history of science, ultimately relating vitalism to the question of life. Following the classical methodological approach endorsed by Immanuel Kant, nineteenth-century philosopher-scientists like Ernst Mach, and early-twentieth-century logical analysts, including logical empiricists, British analysts, pragmatists, Husserlian phenomenologists, and neo-Kantians, this work provides unconventional and valuable perspectives on vitalism and the riddle of life, appealing to a broad audience, including scientists, historians, and philosophers of science, particularly those from biological backgrounds.