Ramsey's Theories (1929) 

Philosophy of Science Colloquium
The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows.

Date: 20/11/2025

Time: 16h45

Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 2i

Abstract:

My talk concerns Frank Ramsey’s theory of theories. The literature on his paper ‘Theories’ (1929) has tended to argue that the primary-secondary systems model of theories that it presents is (i) such that ‘the primary’ refers to what is given in experience while the ‘secondary’ refers to theoretical concepts that are not so given, and (ii) anti-reductionist about those theoretical concepts. I show instead that the primary-secondary systems model is (i) defined along explanatory lines (though it may derivatively apply to the distinction between what is given and what is not) and (ii) reductionist about theoretical concepts. Along the way, I trace some seldom-noted influences on the paper from Wittgenstein, Hilbert, Weyl, and Carnap. I then connect Ramsey’s theory of theories to his late epistemological and meta-philosophical views, and argue that they exhibit an interesting degree of agreement with those set out in Carnap’s Aufbau. I conclude that Ramsey’s late views spanning the philosophy of science, epistemology and meta-philosophy were more continuous with the scientific philosophy of the Vienna Circle than has been appreciated.