Enlightenment, neo-Marxism, conventionalism

towards a critique of cartesian rationalism

pp. 15-26

in: Danilo Zolo, Reflexive epistemology, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

The composition of the Vienna Circle's "manifesto" — Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis — posed a threat, as indeed Neurath intended it should, to the philosophical hegemony of Schlick. The circumstances which made it a shrewd political move against him are well known.¹ There has also been much insistence on the temperamental differences which made even personal relations difficult between Neurath and Schlick,² differences somewhat similar to those which hindered the great majority of the Vienna Circle from developing relations with Wittgenstein.³ The attention given to the anecdotal aspect of these problems of personality has succeeded, however, in blurring the specific philosophical differences which separated Neurath from all the other members of the group, even in matters of editorial or cultural policy where Neurath aimed to present to the outside world an image of unity within the movement.⁴