Logical Positivism
Logical Positivism (the Vienna Circle) held that a statement is meaningful only if it is either analytically true (by definition) or empirically verifiable in principle. Metaphysics, theology, and ethics — being neither — were dismissed as cognitively meaningless. The movement sought to unify all genuine knowledge under the model of the natural sciences, using formal logic as the instrument of conceptual clarification.
I. Time
| Extent | Finite |
| Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Grain | Continuous |
| Freedom | Deterministic |
| Traversability | Linear |
| Dimensionality | One |
| Direction | Uni-directional |
Time is substantival and finite — meaningful statements about time must be empirically verifiable. Time is continuous, linear, deterministic, and uni-directional as verified by physical observation. Metaphysical speculation about time's ultimate nature (e.g., whether time "flows") is cognitively meaningless if it cannot be cashed out in observable predictions.
II. Space
| Extent | Finite |
| Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Curvature | Flat |
| Dimensionality | Three |
| Locality | Local |
Space is substantival, finite, flat, and local — it is described by empirically testable physical theories. Space is three-dimensional as observed. Any spatial claim that cannot in principle be verified by observation is dismissed as pseudo-science or metaphysics.
III. Matter
| Extent | Finite |
| Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Conservation | Conserved |
| Dimensionality | Three |
| Locality | Local |
Matter is substantival, finite, and locally situated — it is whatever physics describes through empirically confirmable propositions. Matter is conserved according to experimentally verified laws. Claims about matter that cannot be reduced to observational statements are cognitively meaningless.
IV. Observer
| Time Instance | Single |
| Space Instance | Single |
| Extent of Knowledge | Immediate |
| Retainment of Knowledge | Total |
| Physicality | Embodied |
| Agency | Passive |
| Number | Plural |
V. Energy
Energy is substantival and finite — a quantity defined by experimentally verifiable physical operations. Conservation holds as one of the most thoroughly confirmed empirical generalizations. Dispersibility is irreversible as verified by thermodynamic observation.
VI. Information
Only empirically verifiable information is meaningful — the information content of a proposition equals its verification conditions. Information is relational because it depends on the relationship between statements and observations. It is conserved in the sense that verified observations accumulate into scientific knowledge. It is discrete because logical positivism reduces meaningful content to definite, testable propositions.