The Ernst Mach Association and the Society for Empirical/Scientific Philosophy

Research Project Austrian Science Fund (FWF) – P24306
Director: Dr. Guenther Sandner, Institute Vienna Circle, University of Vienna

The relationship between scientific and/or philosophical programmatic manifestos and political commitment has often been debated. Are certain political positions inherent in scientific approaches or is there a contingent relation between science and politics? Can even opposing political statements result from the same scientific programs? Particularly due to National Socialism it has often been discussed in a number of case studies (see e.g. the debates on Martin Heidegger) whether pro-Nazi statements by and attitudes of certain philosophers or scientists are a direct consequence of their works or if scientific research and philosophical reflections have to be assessed strictly separate from questions of ethics and politics. Logical Empiricism (LE) is for various reasons a worthwhile example for the study of this precarious relationship. First, logical-empiricist (or neopositivist) approaches have often been qualified by their opponents as merely ‘scientistic’ projects without any political aspirations or, even worse, as affirmative political philosophy that stabilizes the political status quo. Despite historical and empirical evidence that confuted such arguments a problematic political image of Logical Empiricism or Neopositivism is still alive. Second, the proponents of LE obviously differed politically. Although its representatives have displayed common sense with respect to the need for an enlightened, anti-metaphysical, empirically and scientifically oriented new philosophy, their political views, however, ranged from a more or less apolitical Liberalism to militant Marxism. Third, some of the Logical-Empiricists themselves openly discussed whether there is or can be a sort of political agenda of their philosophical and scientific work. This discussion, however, again led to strictly opposing results among proponents of LE: Some of them clearly separated matters of politics from their scholarly activities and stressed the non-cognitive character of ethics (and even politics). Others, however, presumed a close correlation between the revolutionary scientific spirit of optimism that was expressed in the 1929 manifesto entitled “Scientific Conception of the World” and other cultural and political developments leading to social reform and rational planning. Fourth, most of the proponents of LE agreed that science is not only an elitist matter that should be reserved for debates within a close scientific community. Rather, communication between academic or independent scholars and the public was to take place regularly and intensively. Thus, it was at this very time (1928 resp. 1927) that institutions such as the Ernst Mach Association (“Verein Ernst Mach”) in Vienna and the Berlin Society of Empiric/Scientific Philosophy (“Gesellschaft für empirische/wissenschaftliche Philosophie”) were initiated by or with the help of leading proponents of LE.

The research project contextualizes, analyses and critically discusses the intellectual and scientific activities of the respective associations and their proponents such as Moritz Schlick, Philipp Frank, Hans Hahn, Otto Neurath, Hans Reichenbach, Kurt Grelling, Walter Dubislav, and Alexander Herzberg.