Moritz Schlick: Critical complete Edition and Biographie

The development of 20th century philosophy and philosophy of science was profoundly influenced by Logical Empiricism - a movement for which the members of the Vienna Circle did ground-breaking work in the inter-war period. Moritz Schlick (1882-1936), a physicist and philosopher, was a leading figure and founder of the Vienna Circle. After teaching in Rostock from 1911 to 1921, he taught and researched at the University of Vienna from 1922 until his was murdered in 1936. His innovative contributions to modern philosophy and philosophy of science range from natural philosophy, epistemology, linguistic philosophy to ethics and aesthetics in the context of the Vienna Circle and under the influence of the work of Einstein, Russell and Wittgenstein. As a result of international attempts to reconstruct and reassess the Vienna Circle in the last two decades a new image of Moritz Schlick`s life and work has emerged in Germany and Austria. This was made possible by studying the writings and correspondence of which only parts were published and accessible up until now. The goals of this planned 10-year research project which will begin with a three-year start-up phase are the following: to put together a Critical Complete Edition of Moritz Schlick`s Writings and to write a Biography (12 plus 1 volumes) in history of philosophy and science context. The ongoing research in philosophy of science will contribute to closing some big lacunae and will facilitate future studies in this area. The planned edition will for the first time make Schlick`s entire work, which until now was only available in fragmentary way, accessible to a large circle of students and scholars and interested readers. The edition will be edited and commented on in German. This international research and edition project is being carried out as a joint initiative by the Institut Wiener Kreis based in Vienna (A), the Forschungsstelle und Dokumentationszentrum fuer oesterreichische Philosophie in Graz (A) and the Institut fuer Philosophie/Department of Philosophy at the University of Rostock (D). Moritz Schlick`s writings (housed at the Rijksarchief in Haarlem, NL) that are crucial for this project have been archived and copied onto CD-ROM so that they are now accessible in Vienna, Graz and Rostock. The administrators of the Schlick papers have agreed to sign a publication contract with Springer Verlag (Vienna - New York). This project will make for the first time all (published and unpublished) writings including correspondence accessible to researchers and the public. Parallel to this, the first intellectual biography on Schlick will be put together. Together, this critical complete edition of writings and the biography on Moritz Schlick will provide a comprehensive and representative picture of one of the leading figures of the Vienna Circle and influential philosophers of the 20th century. This will ensure an in-depth ongoing systematic research. The project also represents an important lasting contribution to one part of Austrian history of culture and science that has been neglected and forgotten for such a long time.

The development of 20th century philosophy and philosophy of science has been influenced sustainably by Logical Empiricism - a movement for which the members of the Vienna Circle did groundbreaking work during the interwar period. The philosopher and physicist Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) was founder of the Circle and one of its leading figures. Schlick`s innovative contributions to modern philosophy and philosophy of science range from natural philosophy, epistemology, and linguistic philosophy to ethics and aesthetics within the context of the Vienna Circle and in interaction with the works of contemporaneans such as Einstein, Russell, and Wittgenstein. The goal of this research project, entitled "Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Moritz Schlick & Intellectual Biography", consists in preparing and publishing the first section (Published Works) of the Critical Edition of Schlick`s collected writings. Four of six volumes of section I of the edition have already been prepared for printing: Vol. I, Allgemeine Erkenntnislehre. (Eds. Hans Jürgen Wendel, Fynn Ole Engler); Vol. II, Über die Reflexion des Lichtes/Raum und Zeit in der gegenwärtigen Physik. (Eds. Matthias Neuber, Fynn Ole Engler); Vol. III, Lebensweisheit/Fragen der Ethik. (Ed. Mathias Iven); and Vol. VI, Die Wiener Zeit. Aufsätze, Beiträge, Rezensionen 1923-1936 (Eds. Heiner Rutte, Johannes Friedl). The volumes will be published by Springer Wien- New York in April 2006 (vols. II and III), November 2006 (vol. VI), and April 2007 (vol. I), respectivly. The remaining volumes, as well as the first volumes of Section II of the edition, comprising works from Schlick`s literary estate, will be completed during a second project phase (2006-2009), funded by the FWF. Furthermore, several chapters of Schlick`s intellectual biography, which is being realized by Massimo Ferrari in close cooperation with the project group, have been finished. Work on the biography will be continued during the second project phase. The research project has been carried out as part of an international joint collaboration of the Institute Vienna Circle at the University of Vienna, the Forschungsstelle und Dokumentationszentrum für österreichische Philosophie (Research and Documentation Center for Austrian Philosophy, FDÖP at the University of Graz) and the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Rostock in Germany. It has been the aim of this international joint intiative to make the entire work of the founder of the Vienna Circle and one of its most influential philosophers accessible to a large number of students and researchers, setting thus the grounds for differentiated study and providing an innovative and lasting contribution to prospective systematic research.