Otto Neurath—Moritz Schlick: On the Philosophical and Political Antagonisms in the Vienna Circle

Abstract

In drawing the intellectual and personal profiles of Moritz Schlick and Otto Neurath, the two dominant adversary thinkers of the Vienna Circle, I present the outline of the physiognomies of two individuals as well as the inner physiognomy of a ‘scientific community’. The example of these two strong personalities in this heterogeneous circle of scientists furnishes us with the minimum base of doctrinal consensus required to present some aspects of the pluralistic dynamic of theories which characterises this community; it shows the essentials of a ‘psycho-sociogram’ typical of all scientific communities; and it also provides evidence of the mixture of personal, world-view-related political, and philosophical-scientific elements.

Notes

First published as ‘Otto Neurath-Moritz Schlick: Zum philosophischen und weltanschaulich-politischen Antagonismus im Wiener Kreis’, in Schlick und Neurath. Ein Symposion, Hrsg. R. Haller, Grazer Philosophische Studien 16/7 (1982) 451–463, © 1982, Rodopi, Amsterdam. Translated with kind permission of Editions Rodopi and the author by T. E. Uebel.