What was the Vienna Circle? History of this philosophical collective

A group of philosophers who gave way to the beginnings of the philosophy of science.

Throughout history, scientific research has allowed the development of a great number of technologies and the understanding of a great diversity of phenomena that make our daily life easier. Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Medicine, Psychology... all of them have developed over time. But all of them have a common origin, an origin that goes back to antiquity and that stems from the human being's search for an explanation for the mysteries of life: Philosophy..

And like the previous ones, philosophy has also evolved with the times, affecting in turn the scientific development. These advances and changes have generated a great diversity of paradigms, some of which have been forged and discussed in different circles of thinkers. Perhaps one of the one of the best known of modern times was the Vienna Circle, which we will discuss in this article.which we are going to talk about in this article.

The Vienna Circle: what was it and who formed it?

It receives the name of Circle of Vienna an important scientific and philosophical movement that was founded in 1921 by Moritz Schlick in the Austrian city of in the Austrian city that gives its name to this collective. This movement arose with the purpose of forming an informal discussion group on scientific topics, although it would end up being the main ideological nucleus of logical neopositivism and philosophy of science.

This movement included great figures of science from very diverse disciplines, among them (in addition to Schlik himself) Herbert Feigl, Freidrich Waisman, Rudolf Carnap, Victor Kraft, Otto Neurath, Philipp Frank, Klaus Mahn, Carl Gustav Hempel, Felix Kaufmann or Alfred Ayer. Many of them were physicists, mathematicians or professionals who studied different branches of science, but who would end up delving deeper into different aspects of science. but who would end up delving deeper into philosophical aspects.

Although it was born in 1921, it would not be until 1929 that it would make its first official manifesto, entitled "The scientific vision of the world", in which they would propose philosophy as the main instrument to generate a common language for the different scientific disciplines, relegating it only to this function.

The movement was centered on a total empiricism that sought to rely on the advances the advances of logic and physics and centered its methodology on the inductive method.. Another of the main aspects for which he is characterized is his profound rejection of metaphysics, derived from his inductivism and empiricism, considering it alien to the reality of phenomena. Their meetings, held on Thursday nights, would eventually germinate in the so-called logical neopositivism.

Main philosophical contributions

The vision of reality and science of the members of the Vienna Circle is what would end up being called logical neopositivism. This philosophical-scientific stance proposed empiricism and induction as the main elements for scientific study and implied the search for a unity of scientific language under the premise that the different disciplines are all part of the same system with the possibility of unification.

The movement proposed a readaptation of the sciences in order to seek common fundamental laws from which to subsequently deduce those of each of their branches. To this end, it was essential to use a single method, the logical analysis of language, with which, based on the use of symbolic logic and the scientific method, they sought to avoid false statements and to generate a unified knowledge of the world.

For them, the unsolved problems were only because what they were trying to solve are pseudo-problems that must first be transformed into empirical problems.. As we have commented above, such analysis would correspond to the mother of all sciences, philosophy, which should not seek but to clarify scientific problems and statements.

With respect to statements, they considered that there is no unconditionally valid knowledge derived from reason or a priori, being only true those statements based on empirical evidence and on logic and mathematics. In this sense they enunciated the principle of demarcation, in which a statement will be scientific if it can be contrasted and verified by objective experience.

Interestingly, no method was considered invalid (even intuition was valid), as long as what resulted from it could be empirically contrasted and verified..

The Vienna Circle touched a large number of disciplines, including physics (this being possibly the most enhanced and considered), mathematics, geometry, biology, psychology or social sciences. In addition, it was characterized by its opposition to metaphysics (as well as to theology), which it considered to be based on non-empirical and non-verifiable data.

The dissolution of the Circle

The Vienna circle offered interesting contributions and advances both in the field of philosophy and in the various branches of science, as we have seen above. However, a few years after its formation, it would end up dissolving due to the historical events that took place during that time. We are talking about the coming to power of Hitler and Nazism..

The beginning of the end of the circle took place when in June 1936 and on his way to give classes at the University, the pioneer and founder of the Circle Moritz Schlick was murdered in the stairs of the same by a former student of his, Johann Nelböck, of ideology close to the Nazi (although it seems that the murder took place due to delirious ideas of celotypical type with respect to another of Schlick's students, who had rejected the murderer).

The student would be arrested and imprisoned, but two years later he was two years later he would be released by the Nazis, justifying his justifying his actions as an act to prevent doctrines and paradigms harmful and threatening to the nation, due to the fact that a large part of the Vienna Circle was made up of scientists of Jewish origin.

This assassination, in addition to the subsequent rise of Nazism, the annexation of Austria to the German regime and the persecution of the Jews that followed would cause almost all the members of the Vienna Circle to decide to flee to different countries, most of them to the United States. In 38 the publications of the Circle were banned in Germany. A year later the last work of the Circle, the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, was published, and this was the end of the Vienna Circle as such (although they would continue to work on their own).

Only one of the members of the Circle would remain in Vienna, Victor Kraft, around whom the around whom the Kraft Circle would be formed, which would continue to discuss and which would continue to discuss various topics of scientific philosophy.

Bibliographical references:

• Klimovsky, G. (2005). The Misadventures of Scientific Knowledge 6th. Edition. AZ editora. Buenos Aires.
• Lorenzano, P. (2002). The scientific conception of the world: the Vienna Circle. Redes 18. Journal of studies on science and technology, 9 (18). Institute of Studies on Science and Technology. National University of Quilmes. Buenos Aires.
• Urdanoz, T. (1984). Historia de la Filosofía, T. VII. BAC: Madrid.