Our Method: Between Tractatus and Scientific World-Conception

Abstract

This paper aims to reconstruct what Waismann called “our method” as a principal result of the collaboration between himself, Wittgenstein and Schlick. I argue that “our method” is not some imprecise application of Wittgenstein’s way of dealing with philosophical problems but the universal methodology of science, which thanks to Waismann and Schlick integrates philosophical grammar with the scientific world-conception of the Vienna Circle. Waismann’s “our method” thus fulfills the expectations initially associated with Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and anticipates Waismann’s late philosophy of science. I therefore propose to read Waismann’s Logik, Sprache, Philosophie as an introduction neither to Wittgenstein’s transitive nor late philosophy but as an impressive elaboration of the “our method” project. The project was initiated by Schlick’s fascination with the Tractatus as the new organon of scientific knowledge.