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Group of philosophers who gathered round Moritz Schlick, after his
coming in Vienna in 1922. They organized a philosophical association,
named Verein Ernst Mach (Ernst Mach Association). However, meetings on
philosophy of science and epistemology began as early as 1907, promoted
by Frank, Hahn and Neurath, who later arranged to bring Schlick at the
University of Vienna. Among Vienna Circle's members were M. Schlick, R.
Carnap, H. Feigl, P. Frank, K. Gödel, H. Hahn, V. Kraft, O. Neurath,
F. Waismann. Also K. R. Popper and H. Kelsen had many contacts with the
Vienna Circle, although they did not belong to it. At the meetings was
also discussed Wittgenstein's Tractatus, and there were several
meetings between Wittgenstein, Schlick, Waismann and Carnap. In 1929
Hahn, Neurath and Carnap published the manifesto of the circle:
Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis (A scientific
world-view. The Vienna Circle).
Vienna Circle was very active in advertising the new philosophical ideas
of logical positivism. Several congresses on epistemology and philosophy
of science were organized, with the help of the Berlin Circle. There
were some preparatory congresses: Prague (1929), Könisberg (1930),
Prague (1934) and then the first congress on scientific philosophy held
in Paris (1935), followed by congresses in Copenhagen (1936), Paris
(1937), Cambridge, England (1938), Cambridge, Mass. (1939). The
Könisberg congress (1930) was very important, for Gödel
announced he has proved the completeness of first order logic and the
incompleteness of arithmetic. Another very interesting congress was the
one held in Copenhagen (1936), which was dedicated to quantum physics
and causality.
Between 1928 and 1937, the Vienna Circle published ten books in a series
named Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung (Papers on
scientific world-view), edited by Schlick and Frank. Among these works
was Logik der Forschung, 1935, which is the first book published
by K. R. Popper. Seven works were published in another series, called
Einheitswissenschaft (Unified science), edit by Carnap, Frank,
Hahn, Neurath, Joergensen (after Hahn's death) and Morris (from 1938).
In 1930 Carnap and Reichenbach undertook the editorship of the journal
Erkenntnis, which was published between 1930 and 1940 (from 1939
the editors were Neurath, Carnap and Morris).
The following is the list of works published in the two series edit by
the Vienna Circle.
Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung (Papers on
scientific world-view), edit by Schlick and Frank.
R. von Mises, Wahrscheinlichkeit, Statistik und Wahrheit, 1928
(Probability, statistics, and truth, New York : Macmillan
company, 1939)
R. Carnap, Abriss der Logistik, 1929
M. Schlick, Fragen der Ethik, 1930 (Problems of ethics,
New York : Prentice-Hall, 1939)
O. Neurath, Empirische Soziologie, 1931
P. Frank, Das Kausalgesetz und seine Grenzen, 1932 (The law of
causality and its limits, Dordrecth ; Boston : Kluwer, 1997)
O. Kant, Zur Biologie der Ethik, 1932
R. Carnap, Logische Syntax der Sprache, 1934 (The logical
syntax of language, New York : Humanities, 1937)
K. R. Popper, Logik der Forschung, 1934 (The logic of
scientific discovery, New York : Basic Books, 1959)
J. Schächeter, Prologomena zu einer kritischen Grammatik,
1935 (Prolegomena to a critical grammar, Dordrecth ; Boston : D.
Reidel Pub. Co., 1973)
V. Kraft, Die Grundlagen einer wissenschaftliche Wertlehre, 1937
(Foundations for a scientific analysis of value, Dordrecth ;
Boston : D. Reidel Pub. Co., 1981)
Einheitswissenschaft (Unified science), edit by Carnap, Frank,
Hahn, Neurath, Joergensen (after Hahn's death), Morris (from 1938)
H. Hahn, Logik, Mathematik und Naturerkennen, 1933
O. Neurath, Einheitswissenschaft und Psychologie, 1933
R. Carnap, Die Aufgabe der Wissenschaftlogik, 1934
P. Frank, Das Ende der mechanistichen Physik, 1935
O. Neurath, Was bedeutet rationale Wirtschaftsbetrachtung,
1935
O. Neurath, E. Brunswik, C. Hull, G. Mannoury, J. Woodger, Zur
Enzyclopädie der Einheitswissenschaft. Vorträge, 1938
R. von Mises, Ernst Mach und die empiritische
Wissenschaftauffasung, 1939
These works are translated in Unified science - The Vienna Circle
monograph series originally edited by Otto Neurath, Kluwer, 1987.
The members of the Vienna Circle were dispersed when Nazi party went
into power in Germany; many of them emigrated to USA, where they taught
in several universities. Schlick remained in Austria, but in 1936 he was
killed by a Nazi sympathizer student in the University of Vienna.
See also Carnap, Logical positivism.
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