The logical positivists were understandably opposed to philosophical castles in the sky and the tortuous prose they were often defended with. But the logical positivists weren’t merely against metaphysics—they believed they could actually dismiss metaphysical claims as meaningless. Meaning, they held, was a matter of verification: knowing what a statement means is equivalent to knowing how to verify it using your senses. According to the positivists, when you say “it’s hotter outside than it is in here,” you really mean “if you go outside, you will feel hotter than you do in here.” The
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