resolving the conflicts

Metaphysical Positivism is systematic constructive positivist philosophy. We present here sketches of Metaphysical Positivism together with some related historical material which might possibly help the reader come to an understanding of this system and its place in the history of ideas.

The problem of engineering machines which reason is philosophically provocative. The justification of an architecture for such a machine is a kind of constructive philosophy.

A conception of philosophy in terms of its purpose, methods, form and content, which is closer in some ways to literary art than it is to most other philosophy.

Existential positivism is positive practical philosophy. It builds from a base of pragmatic scepticism, and is closely related to, though not strictly dependent on existential expressionism. It bears on philosophical matters which depend in some way on subjective values, or upon some other kind of essential reference to our personal feelings and intutions.

The conflict between logic and emotion takes place in the mind of the individual, that between reason and romanticism belongs to society rather than the individual. Is this essentially the same game in these two different but interrelated arenas?

Two constrasting views of the proper relationship between the logical and emotional elements of the human psyche, which may be thought representative of distinct lines of development of western philosophy are dissected with a view to a synthesis.

Two contrasting views of the proper relationship between the logical and emotional elements of the human psyche, which may be thought representative of distinct lines of development of western philosophy are dissected with a view to a synthesis.

The design of control logic by formal methods provides a stimulating test case for radical advances in the application of formal logic. The articulation of principles, rationale, foundations and methods for such an approach to engineering design has substantial philosophical content.

The construction of machines which realise signficant elements of the kinds of cognitive capacity hitherto exclusive to the human brain is an engineering problem with a substantial philosophical content.

Political philosophy has historically been a significant influence on the evolution of political systems in the real world. Even the most neutral philosophical analysis of may cast light which changes the world. Conversely, thinking about how to realise significant improvements to the world we live in leads us into a kind of philosophy.

Best known as a philosopher and mathematician, Leibniz was also an engineer. He built calculating machines, and conceived of a universal calculating machine capable of solving any problem which could be formulated in a sufficiently precise way.

Artificial Intelligence as we now call it, is an engineering problem whose putative solutions raise philosophical problems. The mere possibility of non-human intelligence, once accepted, may provoke changes in philosophical attitude to problems which have no obvious connec tion with the engineering of artefacts.

Contemporary western philosophy is predominantly a scholarly academic activity in which a philosopher fully acquainted with the relevant literature deploys rational arguments leading to objective conclusions which correct or extend our understanding of various philosophical problems. Though flowing from the same tradition, my philosophy fails to satisfy most of the accepted criteria and is intended to be in some respects which are discussed here, more like art than science.

Philosophy is expected to be objective and rational. Sceptical doubts demand retreat to a subjective expression of a personal viewpoint.

The dynamic character of philosophical thought suggests an expression similar to "stream of consciousness" with more recognition of the significance of internal congnitive structure to the nature of that stream. The hypertext medium permits more transparent presentation of that structured consciousness, the online delivery allows the web site to have a dynamism which reflects the dynamics of thought.

Positivist philosophy in its broadest sense is a general tendency in philosophy which embraces aspects of the thought of many philosophers including Humean scepticism, the work of Comte (who coined the term), elements of utilitarianism and pragmatism, and logical positivism.

Metaphysical Positivism is a positivistic philosophical system formulated for the twenty first century, building on a heritage going back at least as far as David Hume; cognisant of developments in logic and computer science which have taken place in the 20th Century, but turning away from some of the recent tendencies in analytic philosophy.

A philosophical tract arising from the retrenchement of Metaphysical Positivism from a philosophical position aspiring to be a system and a programmme to being, more modestly, the description of certain philosophical problems. This kind of regression is of course, for a sceptical philosophy, its best approximation to triumphal progress.

The term "Existential Positivism" combines two terms which are normally poles apart, apparently an oxymoron.This represents a weakness in positivistic phlosophy which we seek here to remedy.