I am interested in them because of my general interest in the philosophy of science and the broader implications: culturally, socially and politically of differing philosophies of science. Concerning the Vienna Circle, I am in agreement with George Reisch that because of the peculiarities of the reception of logical empiricism into the anglophone world, especially in the US, people have generally failed to understand or appreciate the broader concerns of the Vienna Circle, so that it was generally understood in the US as having been mainly about modern logic and the philosophy of science, whereas they in fact had much broader interests. For example, they had a close working relationship with the Bauhaus. That was partially because the Vienna Circle member, Philipp Frank, had a brother, Josef Frank, who was an architect and a teacher at the Bauhaus, but it was also the case that various members of the Circle, including Neurath and Carnap would regularly give lectures at the Bauhaus. The Circle saw the kind of work being pursued by the Bauhaus as being consistent with their own work as philosophers and scientists. Both the Bauhaus and the Circle were part of the broader social democratic culture that prevailed in Germany and Austria prior to the rise of fascism.
Of the members of the Vienna Circle, Otto Neurath was probably the one who was the most concerned with pursuing these broader implications of logical empiricism. This no doubt was due to his experiences of having been an economic planner for the Austrian government during WW I, his participation in the radical left governments of Bavaria during the 1919 revolution, and his work for the Austrian SPD and the trade union movement during the 1920s and 1930s. Jim F. -- "rasherrs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi Jim Interesting! You seem very familiar with the Vienna Circle. What was it that attracted your interest in it? Paddy Hackett ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Farmelant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu> Cc: <marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu> Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 2:09 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Vienna Circle etc. On Wed, 2 Apr 2008 09:53:37 +0100 "rasherrs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Thank you for the help in relation to the Vienna Circle. It is a > circle > that has been much misunderstood in radical left circles. When I was > in my > late teens I was led to the view that it was a crassly reactionary > group. The Frankfurters in particular pushed that view of the Circle, as did many Soviet or pro-Soviet writers, who emphasized Leninist opposition to Machism. > Why did Wittgenstein not view himself as a logical positivist? The Circle admired Wittgenstein, but he was not inclined to reciprocate. He thought that they misunderstood what he was attempting to do. He was willing to meet with individual members of the Circle, with people like Schlick, Carnap, Feigl etc. but he refused to meet with the Circle as a whole. > What, if > any, the principal difference(s) between their philosophies in these > early > days. I can see why there is a difference between Popper and Logical > > Positivism --the question of verfiability over falsifiablity. There were differences with in the Circle over such issues as physicalist realism versus phenonomenalism, coherence theories of truth versus correspondence theories of truth. Later on there were somewhat different understandings of what was entailed by the unity of science. Did that mean that a straight forward reductionist program was possible with everything being ultimately reduced to the laws of chemistry and physics, or did it simply mean that all meaningul propositions about the world, whether those propositions be from the natural sciences, or the behavioral and social sciences, were expressible in terms of physicalist language? Neurath tended to champion holistic conceptions of truth and knowledge and he shied away from extreme reductionism. His positions were thus akin to those that many Marxists have held over the years. Jim F. > > Paddy Hackett > > ------------ > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ralph Dumain" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu> > Cc: <marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu> > Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 7:47 AM > Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Vienna Circle etc. > > > Interesting. I wonder if I should put this or similar items into > my > bibliography. This is a Marxist advocating the Popperian approach > as > a way of circumventing doctrinal rigidification. Can you think of > other Marxists who have taken this road? > > > > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > > _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis _____________________________________________________________ Make up to $100/hour. Click here to get the skills and the job. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2121/fc/REAK6aAWoEuAz8AegJsoqa1GW1HL7ArUq6G8Ocx5N3AvYuWyzLJjep/ _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
