Verdrängter Humanismus, Band VI: Österreichische Philosophie 1951 - 2000

Verdrängter Humanismus - Verzögerte Aufklärung. Volume 6: Philosophie in Österreich 1951-2000. Auf der Suche nach authentischem Philosophieren. Edited by Michael Benedikt, Reinhold Knoll, Franz Schwediauer and Cornelius Zehetner Summary The present volume brings to a close the history of Austrian philosophy since 1400 in the series `Verdrängter Humanismus - Verzögerte Aufklärung` (`Repressed Humanism - Retarded Enlightenment`). Some of the volumes were published with support by the FWF. The theme of this volume is the current positioning of philosophizing in Austria during the second half of the 20th century. The seventy contributions by sixty authors, some of them foreign, most of them Austrian, offer detailed analyses as well as overviews of personalities and problem areas. In this regard, academic philosophy is not the only focus. The book is also essentially about the complex relationship between philosophy and the special sciences, on the one hand, and politics, society, economy, art and religion, on the other. The question is what relevance philosophy has and how this relevance is expressed in these different realms. The volume is divided into six parts accordingly. The introduction is made by Paul Feyerabend`s extensive and so far unpublished study of the humanities in Austria from the year 1954. Then, the relationship of philosophy with the special sciences, divided into social, natural, and human sciences, in particular, among other themes, analyses of Austrian economic theory and philosophy of law, of physics and biology, as well as of theology and art history. The next section contains treatments of the arts with selected examples. The fourth section pursues the role of philosophy in politics and society: from education policy to socially critical, yet less influential, theoretical conceptions. The voluminous fifth section deals with the representation of philosophy in the provinces, from Tirol to Vienna, whereby the departments of philosophy in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt and Linz are presented in detail. It also tracks the contributions of Austrian philosophy to the international mainstream. The difficulty of seeing philosophy as its own task within the changing life-world is clearly shown here. There seem to be no more schools of philosophy with clear profiles. Behind the widespread need for philosophy, however, the continuity and transformation of three schools of Austrian empirism are shown: scientific-logical empirism in the tradition of the Vienna Circle and analytic philosophy; a human- and social-scientific empirism in the sense of the so-called First Vienna School; and Philosophical Empirism as a comprehensive conception. The latter is a central subject, particularly of an introductory contribution as well as of the final chapter.