What was the Vienna Circle? History of this philosophical group

Scientific research has allowed throughout history the development of a large number of technologies and the understanding of a great diversity of phenomena that make our day-to-day something more easy. 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 starts from the human being's search for an explanation for the mysteries of life: The philosophy.

And like the previous ones, philosophy has also evolved with the times, affecting in turn 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 best known of modern times was the Vienna Circle, which we are going to talk about throughout this article.

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

An important scientific and philosophical movement that

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

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

Although he would be born on the 21st, it would not be until 1929 when he would make his first official manifesto, entitled "The scientific vision of the world", in which he would propose philosophy as the main instrument to generate a common language to the different scientific disciplines, relegating it only to this function.

The movement centered on a total empiricism that It was intended to be based on advances in logic and physics and that its methodology was centered on the inductive method.. Another of the main aspects by which it is characterized is by its profound rejection of metaphysics, derived from its 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.

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Main philosophical contributions

The vision of reality and science proper to 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 assumed the search for a unit of scientific language under the premise that the different disciplines are all part of the same system with the possibility of being unified.

The movement proposed a readaptation of the sciences to look for common fundamental laws from which later to deduce the own of each one of its branches. For this, the use of a single method was essential, the logical analysis of language, with which, based on the use of symbolic logic and the scientific method seek to avoid false statements and be able to generate a unified knowledge of the world.

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

Regarding the statements, they considered that there is no valid knowledge unconditionally derived from reason nor a priori, being only true statements based on empirical evidence and logic and math. 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.

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

The dissolution of the Circle

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

The beginning of the end of the circle occurred when in June 1936 and on the way to teach at the University, the one who was a pioneer and founder of the Circle Moritz Schlick was assassinated on the stairs of the same by a former student of his, Johann Nelböck, of ideology close to the Nazi (although al Apparently the murder occurred due to delusions of a celotypical type regarding another of Schlick's students, who had rejected the assassin).

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

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 Vienna Circle members to decide to flee to different countries, most to States United. In 38 the publications of the Circle were banned in Germany. A year later the last work of the Circle would be published, the International Encyclopedia of Science Unified, this being the end of the Vienna Circle as such (although they would continue to work for its account).

Only one of the members of the Circle would remain in Vienna, Victor Kraft, around whom would form the one that would receive the name of Kraft Circle and that he would continue to discuss various topics of scientific philosophy.

Bibliographic references:

• Klimovsky, G. (2005). The misadventures of scientific knowledge 6th. Edition. AZ editor. Buenos Aires.
• Lorenzano, P. (2002). The scientific conception of the world: the Vienna Circle. Networks 18. Journal of Science and Technology Studies, 9 (18). Institute of Studies on Science and Technology. National University of Quilmes. Buenos Aires.
• Urdanoz, T. (1984). History of Philosophy, T. VII. BAC: Madrid.