Ways of the Scientific World-Conception

Rudolf Carnap (18911970) and Otto Neurath (18821945) were two central members of the Vienna Circle and thus decisively determined the development of the scientific world view of logical empiricism. Contrary to a long-held cliché, this movement is neither uncritically devoted to natural science, nor a truly unified school in the conventional sense. Carnap and Neurath, who were both part of the so-called left wing of the circle, did not only share their political convictions, but also the anti-metaphysical attitude. Aside of this there were profound philosophical differences. The discussion of points of contention, however, took place in the publications of Carnap and Neurath only in a strongly attenuated, more implicit manner: in the midst of philosophically and politically hostile environment, it was important to emphasize cohesion; disagreements were chiefly discussed in small groups or in correspondence. The contributions to this volume illuminate from different perspectives the intricate relations between these two key thinkers. The first part focuses on the prehistory, the different philosophical imprints, from Herbartianism to Empiriocriticism. The second part reconstructs the philosophical debates about the unity of science and intersubjectivity (physicalism) as well as the basis of experience and the structure of cognition (protocol theorem debate) to the question of the possibility and scope of formally oriented approaches and semantics, which was controversially discussed by Carnap and Neurath. The contributions of the third part are devoted to the relationship to contemporaries such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell and Kurt Gödel as well as to Neuraths work in educational theory and his ideological analyses developed in exile in England. Common to the essays included here is the use of previously unpublished sources, especially the extensive correspondence, which is indispensable for reconstructing the development of one of the most important philosophical currents of the 20 th century in the midst of dark times.