The Disputes in Germany and Austria about Methods and Values in the Social Sciences: Part II The Vienna Circle and the Frankfurt School

Abstract

It will become apparent below that there are continuities as well as discontinuities between the Methodenstreit and the Werturteilsstreit before the First World War and the Positivismusstreit after the Second World War. The positivism which the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School seek both to absorb and transform is, however, a conflation of a number of different positivisms including the French tradition, the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle and the instrumental positivism of much American empirical social research. The American developments will be discussed in the next chapter, but it is convenient to consider the Vienna Circle now.