Neo-Kantian origins of modern empiricism

on the relation between Popper and the Vienna circle

Lothar Schäfer

pp. 43-55

in: Michael Heidelberger, Friedrich Stadler (eds), History of philosophy of science, Berlin, Springer, 2002

Abstract

Modern empiricism is usually thought to have emerged in opposition to the then dominant school of neo-Kantianism. True as this may be, it has blinded us to the fact that Kantian and more surprisingly even neo-Kantian elements of philosophy have also had a positive influence upon the development of the new empiricism. One episode in which this influence proves itself in fact dominant and which I will present in the following concerns the philosophical position which Popper adopted vis-à-vis logical empiricism — as advocated by Wittgenstein and Schlick — in Vienna in the late twenties and early thirties of the last century.

Cited authors

Kant Immanuel

Wittgenstein Ludwig

Popper Karl