Vienna Circle

The Vienna Circle was a group of philosophers and scientists organized in Vienna under Moritz Schlick. They met weekly, for the most part, beginning in 1922 and ending in 1936, when Schlick was shot to death by an irate graduate student, Johann Nelböck. Many members had left Austria during the rise of the Nazi party. The Circle clashed with the Nazi party over its ideological and mysticism-based scientific research. Their approach to philosophy came to be known as logical positivism.

Related Topics:
Moritz Schlick - 1922 - 1936 - Johann Nelböck - Austria - Nazi - Logical positivism

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Prominent members of the Circle included Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Herbert Feigl, Philipp Frank, Friedrich Waismann, Hans Hahn, Ernst Topitsch. They were visited on occasion by Hans Reichenbach, Kurt Gödel, Carl Hempel, Alfred Tarski, W. V. Quine, and A. J. Ayer (who popularized their work in Britain and created his own "logical empiricism"). Karl Popper, though he never attended the Circle's meetings, was influential in the reception and criticism of their doctrines.

Related Topics:
Rudolf Carnap - Otto Neurath - Herbert Feigl - Philipp Frank - Friedrich Waismann - Hans Hahn - Ernst Topitsch - Hans Reichenbach - Kurt Gödel - Carl Hempel - Alfred Tarski - W. V. Quine - A. J. Ayer - Karl Popper

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For some time a few of the group's members met regularly with Ludwig Wittgenstein. The main difference that Wittgenstein held from the group was that he believed those matters that could not be expressed in language to be the most important things in life, rather than being meaningless.

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