Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

United by Action: Neurath in England

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Neurath Reconsidered

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 336))

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give a biographical, historical, and philosophical reconstruction of Neurath’s final years in England. Besides reconstructing Neurath’s arrival to England, in the context of his life and philosophical introduction at Oxford, I will argue that since the 1930s, Neurath was eager to develop a brand for logical empiricism. This brand was based not on theoretical commitments, but on practical considerations and decisions. Using a detailed case study on Neurath’s relation to the Hungarian sociologist of knowledge Karl Mannheim, I show that the development of their connections documents how Neurath gave more and more priority to practical aims during his English years. Finally, the concluding section points to some further considerations on Neurath’s legacy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    This paper was supported by the MTA BTK Lendület Morals and Science Research Group; by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and by the “Empiricism and atomism in the twentieth-century Anglo-Saxon philosophy” NKFI project (124970), and by the MTA Premium Postdoctoral Scholarship. I am indebted to Amy Wuest for correcting many linguistic errors in the paper. I am also indebted to the Carnap Archive at Pittsburgh (Rudolf Carnap Papers, 1905–1970, ASP.1974.01, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh) and to the Otto Neurath Nachlass (ONN, Wiener Kreis Archiv, Rijksarchief in Noord- Holland, Haarlem, The Netherlands) for the permission to quote the archive materials. All rights reserved. All the translations from the archive files are mine.

  2. 2.

    Max Black to Neurath, 16 November 1935 and Neurath to Max Black, 4 December 1935 (ONN).

  3. 3.

    See Neurath to Carnap, 13 March 1933 (RC 029-11-20). Quoted and translated by Thomas Uebel (2007, 300).

  4. 4.

    For more on ISOTYPE, see the chapters of Angélique Groß, Sophie Hochhäusl and Silke Körber in the present volume. On Neurath’s Holland-period see Cartwright , Cat, Fleck , Uebel (1996, 82–85), Sandner (2014, 234–263 and forthcoming), and Marie Neurath’s memoirs (1973, 62–64).

  5. 5.

    Neurath to John and Jet Pront, 30 June 1945 (ONN).

  6. 6.

    On Neurath’s lecture see Michelle Henning’s chapter in the present volume.

  7. 7.

    Neurath to John and Jet Pront, 28 July 1945 (ONN).

  8. 8.

    Neurath to John and Jet Pront, 28 July 1945 (ONN).

  9. 9.

    Leonard Marsden to Neurath, 7 October 1940 (ONN).

  10. 10.

    See Leonard Marsden to Neurath, 13 December 1940 (ONN). On Kaempffert’s relation and its significance to Neurath, see George Reisch’s chapter in the present volume.

  11. 11.

    See Neurath to Carnap, 21 September 1941 and 29 July 1942 (RC 102-55-18 and RC 115-07-58). See letters 7 and 13 in this volume. On Cole and Neurath see Günther Sandner’s chapter in the present volume.

  12. 12.

    See Neurath to John and Jet Pront, 25 July 1945 (ONN).

  13. 13.

    See Neurath to Ina Carnap, 24 September 1945 (RC 102-55-13). See letter 35 in this volume.

  14. 14.

    The Oxford course was the only official academic appointment of Neurath: though he habilitated at Heidelberg in 1917, he never taught a course and his permission was suspended two years later. See Sandner (2014, 103–108).

  15. 15.

    Neurath has sent a copy of the Foundations to Radcliff-Brown , thanking him all the discussions and remarks. See Neurath to Radcliff-Brown, 13 January 1945 (ONN).

  16. 16.

    Neurath to Cambridge University Press, 22 February 1941 (ONN).

  17. 17.

    H. H. Price to Radcliff-Brown, copy to Neurath, 13 February 1941 (ONN). During the 1941 Trinity Term Price lectured on Hume’s Theory of Knowledge after publishing a book on the subject (1940); though it is unknown in which semester did Neurath attend the lectures.

  18. 18.

    Neurath to Price , 13 September 1941 (ONN) and Neurath to Joad , 13 September 1941 (ONN). According to the hotel-room reservation plans, Stefan Vajda (mathematician), Martin Strauss (philosopher), Patrick Meredith (lecturer in visual education), C. H. Waddington (biologist), Charles Henry Whiteley (philosopher), Leonard Russell , and a certain A. Pinsent were attending the event. See Neurath to Talbot, 25 and 29 September 1941 (ONN).

  19. 19.

    Neurath gave a lecture also in Cambridge (19 November 1941) under the title “Logical Empiricism and everyday problems” (ONN, K.50).

  20. 20.

    Neurath to Carnap, 15 July 1930 (RC 029-14-14).

  21. 21.

    Schlick to David Rynin, 4 November 1933 (MSN).

  22. 22.

    This picture is drawn, for example, by Ernest Nagel , who participated at the meetings at the turn of 1934/1935. See Nagel to Carnap, 5 January 1935 (RC 029-05-16) and 6 March 1935 (RC 029-05-14).

  23. 23.

    See Carnap to Neurath, 26 March 1935 (RC 029-09-66).

  24. 24.

    See Neurath to Carnap, 26 October 1932 (RC 029-12-17).

  25. 25.

    See Neurath to Carnap, 10 August 1932 (RC 029-12-36).

  26. 26.

    Ina Carnap to Ernest Nagel , 23 January 1935 (RC 029-05-15).

  27. 27.

    Whether Neurath was successful after all, is a further question: he wrote to Carnap, 21 September 1941, that “[s]uch is life, successively we [logical empiricists], the opposition become classics. Now we form a branch like others, as I learned from Laird’s Introduction to modern philosophy” (RC 102-55-18). See letter 7 in the present volume.

  28. 28.

    See Carnap’s diary entry, 15 July 1929 (RC 025-73-03).

  29. 29.

    Neurath to Reichenbach, 22 July 1929 (RC 029-15-15) and Neurath to Carnap, 9 October 1932 (RC 029-12-24). Cf. Neurath to Reichenbach and Carnap, 17 January 1935 (RC 029-09-97).

  30. 30.

    Neurath to Carnap, 12 April and 28 June 1930 (RC 029-14-18 and RC 029-13-10); see further Neurath’s 14 April circular letter about his debate with Reichenbach (RC 029-14-17).

  31. 31.

    Carnap to Reichenbach, 1 February 1935 (RC 102-64-05).

  32. 32.

    On the history of the series see Hegselmann (1987, xiv–xviii). Cf. Neurath to Carnap, Frank and Hahn, 2 November 1932 (RC 029-12-15).

  33. 33.

    Neurath to Carnap, 5 and 16 March 1935 (RC 029-09-78 and RC 029-09-70). See further Carnap to Neurath, 13 March 1935 (RC 029-09-72).

  34. 34.

    It is quite probable that Mannheim’s position and ideas were transferred to Frank via the Harvard-sociologist Robert Merton , who was a friend of Frank, and for a while also a collaborator on a “sociology of science” project (which included Ernest Nagel too). Frank discussed Mannheim, Lukács and other sociologists in an unpublished book manuscript, entitled Science, Facts, and Values (now in preparation for publication). On Frank’s relation to the sociology of science and the mentioned project, see George Reisch’s chapter in the present volume.

  35. 35.

    On Neurath and the strong program, see Uebel (2000); on Frank and the sociology of science see Tuboly (2017).

  36. 36.

    Recently Markus Seidel (2016) listed some reasons for thinking that Neurath’s considerations did not apply to Mannheim. Even if he is right, it does not affect my main points, which are based on Neurath’s internal (or so-called “emic”) perspective.

  37. 37.

    Morris to Neurath, copy to Carnap, 21 February 1937 (RC 102-51-63).

  38. 38.

    Carnap’s diary entry, 19 December 1929 (RC 025-73-03). On the Aufbau’s relation to the Geisteswissenschaften, see Dewulf (2017) and Tuboly (2019)

  39. 39.

    Mannheim to Neurath, 20 April 1939 (ONN).

  40. 40.

    Neurath to Mannheim, 26 April 1939 and Mannheim to Neurath, 30 August 1939 (ONN).

  41. 41.

    Neurath to Mannheim, 12 June and 15 September 1941 (ONN); Mannheim to Neurath, 19 September 1941, in: Mannheim (1996, 170).

  42. 42.

    On the Encyclopedia see Reisch (1994), Dahms (1996).

  43. 43.

    Mannheim to Neurath, 10 March 1943. In: Mannheim (1996, 187).

  44. 44.

    For the significance and context of Neurath’s ideas on planning, see George Reisch’s and Thomas Uebel’s chapters in the volume.

  45. 45.

    Mannheim to Neurath, 15 March and 18 August 1943; see further Neurath to Mannheim, 18 September 1943. In: Mannheim (1996, 188, 192–193).

  46. 46.

    Neurath to Carnap, 22 July 1931 (RC 029-13-08).

  47. 47.

    Feigl to Schlick, 21 July 1929. Moritz Schlick Nachlass. The same event is recalled in Neurath’s unsent letter to Carnap, 22 September 1945 (RC 115-07-66) and in his 24 September 1945 letter (RC 102-55-14). See letters 34 and 36 in this volume. Though it should be admitted that later Feigl (1969/1981, 62) noted his debt to Neurath regarding the Bauhaus .

  48. 48.

    See Neurath and Lauwerys , “Plato’s Republic, German Education and Human Brotherhood,” in the Neurath Nachlass, ONN, K. 73. On Neurath and his fears of German education, see Antonia Soulez’s chapter in the present volume.

  49. 49.

    Neurath to Carnap, 22 December 1942 (RC 115-07-61). See letter 16 in this volume. On the British analysts and Nazism see Akehurst (2010, 16–52).

  50. 50.

    Actually Neurath emphasized this special continuity of his line of thought in “Universal Jargon and Terminology” (1941/1983, 216); but also in his “Argumentation and Action” manuscript (ONN, K39). See also Don Howard’s chapter about the continuation of Neurath’s thought regarding the practical relevance of philosophy, starting around the time of “The Lost Wanderers” article.

  51. 51.

    It should be mentioned though, that in the United States Horace Kallen accused Neurath’s unified idea of totalitarianism already in 1939, and later in 1945. See Reisch (2005, 167–190).

  52. 52.

    See Neurath to Carnap, 21 September 1941 (See letter 7. in this volume.).

References

  • Akehurst, Thomas. 2010. The Cultural Politics of Analytic Philosophy: Britishness and the Spectre of Europe. New York/London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergmann, Gustav. 1993. Memories of the Vienna Circle. Letter to Otto Neurath. In Scientific Philosophy: Origins and Developments, ed. Friedrich Stadler, 193–208. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Carnap, Rudolf. 1934/1987. The Task of the Logic of Science. In Unified Science, ed. Brian McGuinnes, 46–66. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cartwright, Nancy, Jordi Cat, Lola Fleck, and Thomas Uebel. 1996. Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Creath, Richard. 2012. Before Explication. In Carnap’s Ideal of Explication and Naturalism, ed. Pierre Wagner, 161–174. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dahms, Hans-Joachim. 1996. Vienna Circle and French Enlightenment. A Comparison of Diderots Encylopédia with Neuraths International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. In Encyclopedia and Utopia. The Life and Work of Otto Neurath (1882–1945), ed. Elisabeth Nemeth and Friedrich Stadler, 53–61. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dekker, Erwin. 2014. The Intellectual Networks of Otto Neurath: Between the Coffeehouse and Academia. European Studies: A Journal of European Culture, History and Politics 32 (1): 103–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, John. 1939/1970. Theory of Valuation. In Foundations of the Unity of Science: Volume 1, 379–447. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewulf, Fons. 2017. Carnap’s Incorporation of the Geisteswissenschaften in the Aufbau. HOPOS 7 (2): 199–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feigl, Herbert. 1943. Logical Empiricism. In Twentieth Century Philosophy, ed. D.D. Runes, 371–416. New York: Philosophical Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1969/1981. The Wiener Kreis in America. In Inquiries and Provocation. Selected Writings 1929–1974, ed. Robert S. Cohen, 57–94. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grelling, Kurt. 1935. Review of Einheitswissenschaft. Erkenntnis 5: 371–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, Hans. 1933/1987. Logic, Mathematics, and Knowledge of Nature. In Unified Science, ed. Brian McGuinnes, 24–45. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hegselmann, Rainer. 1987. Introduction. In Unified Science, ed. Brian McGuinnes, ix–xxi. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Joad, C.E.M. 1950. A Critique of Logical Positivism. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochan, Miriam. 1983. Britain’s Internees in the Second World War. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mannheim, Karl. 1929/1936. Ideology and Utopia. London: Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1996. Mannheim Károly levelezése 1911–1946 [The Correspondence of Karl Mannheim 1911–1946]. Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neurath, Marie. 1973. Marie Neurath: 1940–1945. In Empiricism and Sociology, ed. Robert S. Cohen and Marie Neurath, 68–75. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Neurath, Otto. 1928/1973. Personal Life and Class Struggle. In Empiricism and Sociology, ed. Robert S. Cohen and Marie Neurath, 249–298. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1930/1981. Bürgerlicher Marxismus. In Gesammelte philosophische and metodologische Schriften, eds. Rudolf Haller and Heinrich Rutte, 345–356. Wien: Holder-Pichler-Tempsky.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1930/1983. Ways of the Scientific World-Conception. In Otto Neurath: Philosophical papers 1913–1946, eds. Robert S. Cohen and Marie Neurath, 32–47. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1931. Magie und Technik. Erkenntnis 2: 82–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1931/1973. Empirical Sociology. In Empiricism and Sociology, ed. Robert S. Cohen and Marie Neurath, 319–421. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1933/1987. Unified Science and Psychology. In Unified Science, ed. Brian McGuinnes, 1–23. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1935/1987. What is Meant by a Rational Economic Theory? In Unified Science, ed. Brian McGuinnes, 67–109. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1936. International Picture Language. London: Kegan Paul/Trench/Trubner & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1937. Basic by Isotype. London: Kegan Paul/Trench/Trubner & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1937/1987. The New Encyclopedia. In Unified Science, ed. Brian McGuinnes, 132–141. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1939. Modern Man in the Making. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1941. The Danger of Careless Terminology. The New Era: The Journal of the World Education Fellowship 22 (7): 145–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1941/1983. Universal Jargon and Terminology. In Otto Neurath: Philosophical Papers 1913–1946, ed. Robert S. Cohen and Marie Neurath, 213–229. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944/1970. Foundations of the Social Sciences. In Foundations of the Unity of Science: Volume 1, 1–51. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1996. Visual Education: Humanisation versus Popularisation. In Encyclopedia and Utopia. The Life and Work of Otto Neurath (1882–1945), ed. Elisabeth Nemeth and Friedrich Stadler, 245–335. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neurath, Otto, and Joseph A. Lauwerys. 1945. Plato’s Republic and German Education. The Journal of Education 77 (907): 57–59 (910): 222, 224; (913): 394.

    Google Scholar 

  • Platt, Jennifer. 2014. The International Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction and British Sociology. In The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain, ed. John Holwood and John Scott, 236–259. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Price, Henry H. 1940. Hume’s Theory of the External World. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radcliff-Brown, Alfred Reginald. 1939. Taboo: The Frazer Lecture 1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichenbach, Hans. 1929/1978. The New Philosophy of Science. In Selected Writings: 1909–1953. Volume 1, ed. Maria Reichenbach and Robert S. Cohen, 258–260. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reisch, George. 1994. Planning Science: Otto Neurath and the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. British Journal for the History of Science 27 (2): 153–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1996. Terminology in Action: Neurath and the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. In Encyclopedia and Utopia. The Life and Work of Otto Neurath (1882–1945), ed. Elisabeth Nemeth and Friedrich Stadler, 79–86. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. How the Cold War Transformed Philosophy of Science: To the Icy Slopes of Logic. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, Ben. 1999. A. J. Ayer. A Life. London: Chatto & Windus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandner, Günther. 2011. The German Climate and Its Opposite: Otto Neurath in England, 1940–45. In Political Exile and Exile Politics in Britain after 1933, ed. A. Grenville and A. Reiter, 67–85. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. Otto Neurath: Eine politische Biographie. Wien: Zsolnay.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seidel, Markus. 2016. Changing Society by Scientific Investigations? The Unexpected Shared Ground Between Early Sociology of Knowledge and the Vienna Circle. Foundations of Science 21: 117–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stadler, Friedrich. 2001/2015. The Vienna Circle. Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism. 2nd ed. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuboly, Adam Tamas. 2017. Philipp Frank’s Decline and the Crisis of Logical Empiricism. Studies in East European Thought 69 (3): 257–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2019. The Constitution of Geistige Gegenstände in Carnap’s Aufbau and the Importance of Hans Freyer. In Logical Empiricism, Life Reform, and the German Youth Movement, ed. Christian Damböck, Günther Sandner, and Meike Werner. Cham: Springer (Forthcoming).

    Google Scholar 

  • Uebel, Thomas. 2000. Logical Empiricism and the Sociology of Knowledge: The Case of Neurath and Frank. Philosophy of Science 67: 138–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. Empiricism at the Crossroads. The Vienna Circle’s Protocol-Sentence Debate. Chicago/La Salle: Open Court.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Adam Tamas Tuboly

Authors
  1. Adam Tamas Tuboly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adam Tamas Tuboly .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Jordi Cat

  2. Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Adam Tamas Tuboly

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Tuboly, A.T. (2019). United by Action: Neurath in England. In: Cat, J., Tuboly, A. (eds) Neurath Reconsidered. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 336. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02128-3_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation