The Vienna Circle's Reception of Nietzsche
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/jhap.v8i9.4276Abstract
Friedrich Nietzsche was among the figures from the history of nineteenth-century philosophy that, perhaps surprisingly, some of the Vienna Circle’s members had presented as one of their predecessors. While, primarily for political reasons, most Anglophone figures in the history of analytic philosophy had taken a dim view of Nietzsche, the Vienna Circle’s leader Moritz Schlick admired and praised Nietzsche, rejecting what he saw as a misinterpretation of Nietzsche as a militarist or proto-fascist. Schlick, Frank, Neurath, and Carnap were in different ways committed to the view that Nietzsche made a significant contribution to the overcoming of metaphysics. Some of these philosophers praised the intimate connection Nietzsche drew between his philosophical outlook and empirical studies in psychology and physiology. In his 1912 lectures on Nietzsche, Schlick maintained that Nietzsche overcame an initial Schopenhauerian metaphysical-artistic phase in his thinking, and subsequently remained a positivist until his last writings. Frank and Neurath made the weaker claim that Nietzsche contributed to the development of a positivistic or scientific conception of the world. Schlick and Frank took a further step in seeing the mature Nietzsche as an Enlightenment thinker.
References
Akehurst, Thomas L., 2010. The Cultural Politics of Analytic Philosophy: Britishness and the Spectre of Europe. London: Continuum.
Allen, Barry, 2003. “Carnap’s Contexts: Comte, Heidegger, Nietzsche.” In A House divided: Comparing Analytic and Continental Philosophy, edited by C. G. Prado, pp. 33–62. New York: Humanity Books.
Andreas-Salomé, Lou, 2001. Nietzsche, edited by Siegfried Mandel. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press.
Aschheim, Steven E., 1994. The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany: 1890-1990. London, Berkeley, and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Ayer, A. J., 1959. Logical Positivism. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press.
Bonnet, Christian, 2016. “Schlick et l’origine pratique de la connaissance.” In Wissenschaft und Praxis. Zur Wissenschaftsphilosophie in Frankreich und Österreich in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, edited by Christian Bonnet and Elisabeth Nemeth, pp. 43–53. Dordrecht: Springer.
Bright, Liam Kofi. “Logical Empiricists on Race.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 65: 9–18.
Carnap, Rudolf, 1918. “Schema für den 9. Rundbrief”. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pittsburgh, Archive for Scientific Philosophy, https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735061847921/viewer.
———, 1922–33. “Lectures in Europe (Items 43–54)”. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pittsburgh, Archive for Scientific Philosophy, https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735061812479/viewer.
———, 1929–37. “Lectures in Europe (Items 18—29)”. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pittsburgh, Archive for Scientific Philosophy, https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735061812453/viewer.
———, 1959a. “Psychology in Physical Language, translated by George Schick.” In Ayer (1959), pp. 165–98.
———, 1959b. “The Elimination Of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language, translated by Arthur Pap.” In Ayer (1959), pp. 60–81.
———, 2003. The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy, edited by Rolf A. George. Chicago: Open Court Classics.
Carsten Klein and Steve Awodey, eds., 2004. Carnap Brought Home: The View from Jena. Chicago: Open Court.
Carus, André W., 2008. Carnap and Twentieth-Century Thought: Explication as Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clark, Maudemarie and David Dudrick, 2004. “Nietzsche’s Post-Positivism.” European Journal of Philosophy 12: 369–85.
Cohen, Jonathan, 1999. “Nietzsche’s Fling with Positivism.” In Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science, edited by Babette E. Babich and Robert S. Cohen, pp. 101–108. Dordrecht: Springer.
Dahms, Hans J., 2004. “Neue Sachlichkeit in the Architecture and Philosophy of the 1920s.” In Klein and Awodey (2004), pp. 357–76.
Damböck, Christian, 2012. “Rudolf Carnap and Wilhelm Dilthey: ‘German’ Empiricism in the Aufbau.” In Rudolf Carnap and the Legacy of Logical Empiricism, edited by Richard Creath, pp. 67–88. Dordrecht: Springer.
Feigl, Herbert, 1979. “Memoir.” In Schlick (1979d), pp. xv–xxxviii.
———, 1981. “Validation and Vindication: An Analysis of the Nature and the Limits of Ethical Arguments.” In Inquiries and Provocations: Selected Writings 1929–1974, edited by Robert S. Cohen, pp. 378–92. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Ferrari, Massimo, 2016. “Wiener Gefühle. Fragen der Ethik zwischen Schlick und Carnap.” In Wissenschaft und Praxis. Zur Wissenschaftsphilosophie in Frankreich und Österreich in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, edited by Christian Bonnet and Elisabeth Nemeth, pp. 5–28. Dordrecht: Springer.
Fischer, Kurt Rudolf, 1999. “Nietzsche and the Vienna Circle.” In Nietzsche, Theories of Knowledge, and Critical Theory, edited by Babette E. Babich and Robert S. Cohen, pp. 119–28. Dordrecht: Springer.
Frank, Philipp, 1915. “[Rezension] Hans Kleinpeter, Der Phaenomenalismus, Leipzig 1913.” Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 1915: 46–47.
———, 1947. Einstein: His Life and Times, edited by George Rosen. New York: Alfred Knopf.
———, 1949. Modern Science and its Philosophy. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
———, 1970. “The Importance of Ernst Mach’s Philosophy of Science for our times.” In Ernst Mach: Physicist and Philosopher, edited by Robert S. Cohen and Raymond J. Seeger, pp. 219–34. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Friedman, Michael, 2000. A Parting of the Ways: Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger. Chigago: Court.
Gabriel, Gottfried, 2004. “Introduction: Carnap Brought Home.” In Klein and Awodey (2004), pp. 3–24.
Galison, Peter, 1990. “Aufbau/Bauhaus: Logical Positivism and Architectural Modernism.” Critical Inquiry 16: 709–52.
Gori, Pietro, 2012. “Nietzsche as Phenomenalist?” In Nietzsches Wissenschaftsphilosophie, edited by Helmut Heit, Günter Abel and Marco Brusotti, pp. 345–56. Berlin: de Gruyter.
———, 2019. Nietzsche’s Pragmatism: A Study on Perspectival Thought, edited by Sarah De Sanctis. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Hussain, Nadeem J. Z., 2004. “Nietzsche’s Positivism.” European Journal of Philosophy 12: 326–68.
Iven, Mathias, 2013a. “Einleitung.” In Schlick (2013), pp. 17–52.
———, 2013b. “Editorischer Bericht.” In Schlick (2013), pp. 55–76.
Kleinpeter, Hans, 1913. Der Phenomenalismus: Eine naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung. Leipzig: Barth.
Lange, Friedrich Albert, 1866. Geschichte des Materialismus: Und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in Gegenwart. Iserlohn: Baedeker.
Leinonen, Mikko, 2016. “Assessing Rickert’s Influences on Carnap.” In Influences on the Aufbau, edited by Christian Damböck, pp. 213–32. Cham: Springer.
Lewis, Joia, 1988. “Schlick’s Critique of Positivism.” PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1: 110–17.
Martin, Nicholas, 2006. “Nietzsche as Hate-Figure in Britain’s Great War: ‘The Execrable Neech’.” In The First World War as a Clash of Cultures, edited by Fred Bridgham, pp. 147–66. New York: Camden House.
McGuinness, Brian and Joachim Schulte, eds., 1994. Ethics and the Will. Dordrecht: Springer.
Moreira, Felipe G. A., 2018. “Overcoming Metametaphysics: Nietzsche and Carnap.” Nietzsche Studien 47: 240–71.
Mormann, Thomas, 2006. “Between Heidelberg and Marburg: The Aufbau’s Neo-Kantian origins and the AP/CP divide.” Sapere Aude: Revista de Filosofia 1: 22–50.
———, 2010. “Zwischen Weisheit und Wissenschaft: Schlicks weites philosophisches Spektrum.” Grazer Philosophische Studien 80: 263–85.
———, 2012. “Carnap’s Boundless Ocean of Unlimited Possibilities: Between Enlightenment and Romanticism.” In Carnap’s Ideal of Explication and Naturalism, edited by Pierre Wagner, pp. 63–78. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
———, 2015. “Review of Moritz Schlick: Nietzsche und Schopenhauer (Vorlesungen).” Journal for General Philosophy of Science 46: 419–23.
———, 2016. “Carnap’s Aufbau in the Weimar Context.” In Influences on the Aufbau, edited by Christian Damböck, pp. 115–36. Cham: Springer.
Nelson, Eric, 2018. “Dilthey and Carnap: The Feeling of Life, the Scientific Worldview, and the Elimination of Metaphysics.” In The Worlds of Positivism, edited by Johannes Feichtinger, Franz L. Fillafer and Jan Surman, pp. 321–46. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nemeth, Elisabeth, 1992. “Nietzsche, Neurath und die Reflexivität der Moderne.” In Philosophie, Psychoanalyse, Emigration: Festschrift für Kurt Rudolf Fischer, edited by P. Muhr, P. Feyerabend and C. Wegeler, pp. 251–66. Vienna: Universitätsverlag.
Neurath, Otto, 1955. “Unified Science as Encyclopedic Integration.” In International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. Volume I. Part 1, edited by Otto Neurath, Rudolf Carnap and Charles Morris, pp. 1–27. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———, 1981. “Einheitswissenschaft als Empiristische Synthese.” In Gesammelte philosophische und methodologische Schriften. Volume 2, edited by Rudolf Haller and Heiner Rutte, pp. 825–31. Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky.
———, 1987. “Unified Science and Psychology.” In Unified Science, edited by Brian McGuinness, pp. 1–23. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Neurath, O. and J. A. Lauwerys, 1944. “Nazi textbooks and the future.” The Journal of Education 76: 521–22, 574–76.
———, 1945. “Plato’s Republic and German Education.” The Journal of Education 77: 57–59.
Nietzsche, Friedrich W., 1996. On the Genealogy of Morals, edited by Douglas Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———, 2002. Beyond Good and Evil, edited by Judith Norman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Potochnik, Angela and Audrey Yap, 2006. “Revisiting Galison’s ‘Aufbau/Bauhaus’ in light of Neurath’s philosophical projects.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 37: 469–88.
Reichenbach, Hans, 1978. Selected Writings, 1909–1953. Volume 1, edited by Maria Reichenbach and Robert S. Cohen. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Reisch, George A., 2005. How the Cold War transformed Philosophy of Science: To the Icy Slopes of Logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Russell, Bertrand, 1946. History of Western Philosophy: And its connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. London: Allen and Unwin.
Sachs, Carl B., 2011. “What Is To Be Overcome? Nietzsche, Carnap, and Modernism as the Overcoming of Metaphysics.” History of Philosophy Quarterly 28: 303–18.
Schleichert, Hubert, 2003. “Moritz Schlick’s Idea of Non-Territorial States.” In The Vienna Circle and Logical Empiricism: Re-evaluation and Future Perspectives, edited by Friedrich Stadler, pp. 49–61. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Schlick, Moritz, 1938. “L’École de Vienne et la philosophie traditionnelle.” In Gesammelte Aufsätze 1926–1936. Vienna: Gerold & Co.
———, 1939. Problems of Ethics, edited by David Rynin. New York: Prentice Hall.
———, 1952. Natur und Kultur. Vienna & Stuttgart: Humboldt.
———, 1959. “The Foundation of Knowledge, translated by David Rynin.” In Ayer (1959), pp. 209–27.
———, 1962. Aphorismen, edited by Blanche Hardy Schlick. Vienna: Carl Ueberreuter.
———, 1974. General Theory of Knowledge, edited by Albert E. Blumberg. Vienna: Springer.
———, 1979a. “On the Meaning of Life.” In Schlick (1979e), pp. 112–29.
———, 1979b. “The fundamental problem of aesthetics seen in an evolutionary light.” In Schlick (1979d), pp. 1–24.
———, 1979c. “The Present Task of Philosophy.” In Schlick (1979d), pp. 104–18.
———, 1979d. Moritz Schlick: Philosophical Papers: Volume One (1909-1922), edited by Henk L. Mulder and Barbara van de Velde-Schlick. Dordrecht: Reidel.
———, 1979e. Moritz Schlick: Philosophical Papers: Volume Two (1925-1936), edited by Henk L. Mulder and Barbara van de Velde-Schlick. Dordrecht: Reidel.
———, 2006. Lebensweisheit: Versuch einer Glückseligkeitslehre und Fragen der Ethik, edited by Mathias Iven. Vienna: Springer.
———, 2008. “The Future of Philosophy.” In Die Wiener Zeit: Aufsätze, Beiträge, Rezensionen 1926–1936, edited by Johannes Friedl and Heiner Rutte, pp. 371–90. Dordrecht: Springer.
———, 2013. Nietzsche und Schopenhauer, edited by Mathias Iven. Dordrecht: Springer.
Soulez, Antonia, 2019. “Does Understanding Mean Forgiveness? Otto Neurath and Plato’s ‘Republic’ in 1944–45.” In Neurath Reconsidered: New Sources and Perspectives, edited by Jordi Cat and Adam T. Tuboly, pp. 435–49. Dordrecht: Springer.
Stadler, Friedrich, 2015. The Vienna Circle: Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism. Dordrecht: Springer.
Mark Textor, 2018. “Schlick on the Source of the ‘Great Errors in Philosophy’.” Journal of the American Philosophical Association 4: 105–25.
Tuboly, Adam Tamas, 2019. “Review of Michael Turk, Otto Neurath and the History of Economics.” Review of Radical Political Economics 52: 164–68.
———, forthcoming a. “Making Logical Positivism Less Logical: The Case of Schlick and von Mises.” In The Socio-Ethical Dimension of Knowledge: The Mission of Logical Empiricism, edited by Christian Damböck and Adam T. Tuboly. Cham: Springer.
———, forthcoming b. “Neurath on Plato-Hitler and the British Scene of Irritation.” In Proceedings of the Carnap/Neurath Conference. Studien zur Österreichischen Philosophie, edited by Ch. Damböck, J. Friedl and U. Höfer. Amsterdam: Rodopi–Brill.
Tuusvuori, Jarkko S., 2000. Nietzsche & Nihilism: Exploring a Revolutionary Conception of Philosophical Conceptuality. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Helsinki.
Uebel, Thomas, 1992. Overcoming Logical Positivism from Within: The Emergence of Neurath’s Naturalism in the Vienna Circle’s Protocol Sentence Debate. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
———, 2007. Empiricism at the Crossroads. The Vienna Circle’s Protocol Sentence Debate. Chicago: Open Court.
———, 2015. “American Pragmatism and the Vienna Circle: The Early Years.” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 3(3): 1–35.
———, 2019. “Verificationism and (Some of) its Discontents.” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 7(4): 1–31.
———, 2020. “Schlick and Wittgenstein: The Theory of Affirmations Revisited.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 58: 141–66.
von Mises, Richard, 1970. “Ernst Mach and the Empiricist Conception of Science.” In Ernst Mach: Physicist and Philosopher, edited by Robert S. Cohen, pp. 245–71. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Vrahimis, Andreas, 2012. “Modernism and the Vienna Circle’s critique of Heidegger.” Critical Quarterly 54: 61–83.
———, 2013a. “ ‘Was There a Sun Before Men Existed?’: A. J. Ayer and French Philosophy in the Fifties.” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 1(9): 1–25.
———, 2013b. Encounters between Analytic and Continental Philosophy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
———, forthcoming a. “Philosophy (and Wissenschaft) without Politics?: Schlick on Nietzsche, German Idealism, and Militarism.” In The Socio-Ethical Dimension of Knowledge: The Mission of Logical Empiricism, edited by Christian Damböck and Adam T. Tuboly. Cham: Springer.
———, forthcoming b. “Language, Truth, and Logic and the Anglophone Reception of the Vienna Circle.” In The Historical and Philosophical Significance of Ayer’s Language, Truth, and Logic, edited by Adam Tuboly. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Waismann, Friedrich, 1959. “How I See Philosophy.” In Ayer (1959), pp. 345–80.
———, 1979. “Foreword.” In Schlick (1979e), pp. xxiii–xxxiii.
———, 1994a. “Ethics and Science.” In McGuinness and Schulte (1994), pp. 33–52.
———, 1994b. “Will and Motive.” In McGuinness and Schulte (1994), pp. 53–137.
Wolters, Gereon, 2004. “Styles in Philosophy: the Case of Carnap.” In Klein and Awodey (2004), pp. 25–40.
———, 2017. “Clash of Cultures? German Philosophers of Science and the Great War (1914-1918).” Bollettino della Società Filosofica Italiana, nuova series 220: 7–28.
———, forthcoming. “Philosophenkrieger? Wie Carnap & Co. den Ersten Weltkrieg sahen.” In Logical Empirism, Life Reform, and the German Youth Movement, edited by Christian Damböck, Günther Sandner and Meike Werner. Cham: Springer.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The Public Knowledge Project recommends the use of the Creative Commons license. The Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy requires authors to agree to a Creative Commons Attribution /Non-commercial license. Authors who publish with the Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC license.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
