On Neurath’s Writings on Logic, Ethics and Physics

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of seven, mostly shorter essays by Neurath on the interpretation of logical algebra, on the measurement problems of utilitarianism, and on the methodology of science with reference to the history of optics. These contributions show like no others the breadth of Neurath’s interests and his knowledge of detail, but they also show that he was at his best not in the role of a purely scientific academic writer, for these works clearly exhibit his characteristic overenthusiastic immaturity. In alternating fashion, we can find extremely penetrating judgements and very practical, well-pointed remarks on the methodology and the history of science, but also presentiments, which, however clever, are not yet thought through, and even wrong-headed misdeductions.

Notes

First published as ‘Zu einigen Schriften von Otto Neurath über Logik, Ethik und Physik’, in Arbeiterbildung in der Zwischenkriegszeit, Hrsg. F. Stadler, © 1982, Österreichisches Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, Wien, pp. 107–111. Translated with kind permission of Österreichisches Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum and the author by T. E. Uebel.