How did logical positivism grow out of logical atomism and empiricism?

Logical positivism emerged in the 1920s as a synthesis of classical empiricism and the formal tools of logical atomism.12

The movement grew out of these traditions in several key ways:

• From Logical Atomism: The Vienna Circle adopted the atomist conviction that philosophy should be scientific and grounded in mathematical logic. They utilized the theory of meaning found in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to establish their own logical foundations. However, they ultimately rejected logical atomism itself, viewing it as a form of metaphysics that purported to describe the structure of reality, which they deemed meaningless.21
• From Empiricism: Logical positivists built upon the classical empiricist view that all factual knowledge must be based on experience. They refined this by replacing personal experience with public experimental verification as the ultimate basis for knowledge.21

By combining these influences, logical positivists argued that only statements verifiable through science, logic, or mathematics are cognitively significant, dismissing traditional metaphysical, ethical, and aesthetic claims as literally nonsensical.12