“Though it is long gone and not so often talked about today, there is no doubt that ‘The Vienna Circle’ was an assemblage of some of the most impressive human beings who have ever walked the planet, and Karl Sigmund’s book tells its story, and their stories, in a gripping and eloquent fashion.’’
Throughout several decades, I was struck by the repeated appearances (influencing modernity) by the thinkers in interwar war Vienna. Popper, Gödel, Wittgenstein, Rudolf Carnap, Oscar Morgenstern, Ludwig Von Mises, Frederic Hayek, Sigmund Freud, Stephen Zweig, Joseph Roth, Karl/Micheal Polanyi, Peter Drucker, etc., etc., all influenced modernity. Wow!
Why Vienna? Why at that time? Horrible inflation, terrible political conflict, communism fighting socialism, nationalism overtaking everyone; what a mess! Yes, ‘Demented Times’! This is where huge part of modernity starts??? What was so. . .so. . .significant, so important?
“The circle sought to create a purely science-based philosophy without any highbrow talk of unfathomable depths and without any otherworldly obscurantism:
“In science there are no ‘depths’; instead, there is surface everywhere. All experience forms a complex network, which cannot always be surveyed in its totality and which often can only be grasped in parts. Everything is accessible to Man; and Man is the measure of all things.”
‘Science based philosophy’ still drives much modern thought. These scholars found the key battleground to conquer the ‘old world’. We are ready for a new ‘scientific’ world!
“The Vienna Circle forged ahead in the tradition of Ernst Mach and Ludwig Boltzmann, two towering physicists who had made great discoveries and had taught philosophy in turn-of-the-century Vienna. The other main guiding lights of the small band of thinkers were the physicist Albert Einstein, the mathematician David Hilbert, and the philosopher Bertrand Russell.’’
What subjects? Well they were . . .
“decisively shaping analytical philosophy, formal logic, and economic theory. For example, the algorithms and computer programs that pervade our daily lives can be traced all the way back to the abstract investigations of Russell, Gödel, and Carnap into symbolic logic and computability.
Yes, the ideas, the discoveries of these men have shaped human thought. Who were they and how did this happen? This book starts with the foundation - Ernst Mach . . .
“Mach’s ideas on the foundations of physics brought him worldwide acclaim. As Karl Popper would later write:
“Few great men have had an intellectual impact upon the twentieth century comparable to that of Ernst Mach. He influenced physics, physiology, psychology, the philosophy of science, and pure (or speculative) philosophy. He influenced Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, William James, Bertrand Russell—to mention just a few names.”
The reaction - for and against - to Mach produced the intellectual ferment, the problems and questions that drove these professors to debate, write, teach, argue and then - change the world!
What other scientific earthquake broke their mental (emotional) stability?
“Suddenly, the mathematicians—those who brood in the innermost reaches—came upon something deeply flawed at the very crux of the whole structure, something that simply could not be fixed; they actually looked all the way to the bottom and found that the whole edifice [of mathematics] was floating in midair.’’
What! ‘Mathematics deeply flawed’?
“And yet the machines still worked! We must therefore assume that our existence is a pale ghost; we live it, but only on the basis of an error without which it would never have arisen. Today, there is no other way to experience such astonishing sensations as those of mathematicians.’’
This shock, this tsunami, is still reverberating, even though not commonly known.
How did they see their program?
“Hahn opened his presentation by defining his terms. The term scientific worldview, he explained, is proposed both as a creed and as a contrast. The term creed may seem strange, coming from the mouth of a confirmed freethinker, but yes:
(creed implies a religion)
“It helps us to confess our faith in the methodology of the exact sciences, especially mathematics and physics, and our faith in careful logical inference (in contrast to bold flights of fancy, mystical intuitions, and emotional ways of relating to the world), and our faith. . .
(this hard headed mathematician needs ‘faith’!)
. . .in the patient observation of phenomena, isolated as much as possible, no matter how negligible and insignificant they may appear in themselves (as opposed to the poetic, imaginative attempt to grasp wholes and complexes that are as vast and as all-encompassing as possible).”
(Sigmund adds)
“But the term scientific worldview was not just a set of interrelated faiths; it was actually a declaration of war!’’
ONE - Bringing the Vienna Circle into Focus
TWO - A Tale of Two Thinkers
THREE - A Trial Run for the Vienna Circle
FOUR - The Circle Starts Rolling
FIVE - The Turn of the Circle
SIX - The Circle Makes a Name for Itself
SEVEN - Tangents
EIGHT - The Parallel Circle
NINE - The Circle Squeezed
TEN - Moral Matters
ELEVEN - The Circle’s End
TWELVE - Circling the Globe
THIRTEEN - Fadeout
Interesting that Sigmund includes Karl Popper as part of the Vienna Circle, even though he never attended one meeting. Nevertheless, he was there in Vienna and interacted with them. One example . . .
“Instead, as was his usual style, he picked his opponents from the heavyweight class. Marxism and psychoanalysis were the two hottest topics of debate in Vienna at that time. Thus it was against those two that Karl Popper launched his attacks. He was not going to accept either one as part of science; indeed, he was going to tackle them both head-on. For a while, even Darwin’s theory of evolution aroused Popper’s suspicions. Popper claimed that anyone who had acquired even a modicum of debating skills could easily shield these doctrines against all criticism, no matter how sharp. And this trait of invulnerability or undefeasibility, he pointed out, was precisely what disqualified such theories from being genuine branches of science.’’
In fact Marxism - its adherents and detractors - is a key theme. Also the impact of national socialism and anti-semitism on Vienna and Austria. Very well presented.
Sigmund draws a vibrant, colorful, intricate tapestry. Multifaceted, closer to a iridescent mosaic than a photograph. Easy to visualize and fascinating to the eye.
Presents both the people - foibles, character, strengths, weaknesses - quickly and clearly. Makes them come alive. Great!
Also, excellent explanation of the ideas, the philosophical problems that is the core of their life. These concepts are not superficial or simple questions. Sigmund does outstanding job of presentation. Maybe the best effort I have read for the general reader (some over my head).
About fifty b/w photographs. Really helps in visualizing the characters. Wonderful!
Two hundred fifty references in bibliography. Astounding scholarship!
Four hundred notes, linked in the text. Extremely user friendly. First time I have seen this. Love it!
Extensive index (linked). Great!
This work deserves ten stars!
(See also: “Adventures of a Bystander Hardcover” by Peter F. Drucker; “Ludwig von Mises - Last Knight of Liberalism’’. Both add significant insight to this (amazing) Vienna story!)
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AriadneReviewed in Brazil on January 26, 2019
Luz, escuridão e uma narrativa empolgante
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase - BrianReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2022
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase -
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Gottfried EderReviewed in Germany on March 2, 2018
großartiger Einblick in die wissenschaftliche politische Geschichte von Wien id der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts
