Carnap, Reichenbach, Freyer. Noncognitivist Ethics and Politics in the Spirit of the German Youth Movement

Abstract

AbstractThis paper argues that the noncognitivist philosophies of two key figures of left-wing Logical Empiricism, namely, Rudolf Carnap and Hans Reichenbach, and the ideologue of a “revolution from the right,” namely, Hans Freyer, were intended as political concepts regarding how society ought to contend with values and norms. This political character of noncognitivism and the tension between its different varieties—from the liberal left to the far right—becomes fully visible only if we return to the origin of these views in the German Youth Movement of the second decade of the twentieth century.