Vienna Circle

The Vienna Circle was a group of philosophers and scientists active in interwar Vienna who promoted logical empiricism, formal logic, and empirical science.

Moritz Schlick: A German philosopher who led the Vienna Circle’s regular meetings from 1922 until his death in 1936. His appointment in Vienna gathered the group around a continuing seminar.
Logical empiricism: A twentieth-century philosophical movement combining empiricism with the analysis of language and logic. It names the movement the Circle helped establish and promote.
Rudolf Carnap: A German philosopher and leading logical empiricist known for work in logic, language, and scientific methodology. His formal reconstruction of scientific knowledge became one of the Circle’s central projects.
Anschluss: The 1938 annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. It intensified the political danger facing the Circle’s Jewish and left-wing members.
Critique of metaphysics: The philosophical examination and rejection of claims judged to exceed or evade meaningful inquiry. The Circle’s attack on metaphysics raised lasting questions about what counts as a genuine claim.
Ernst Mach: An Austrian physicist and philosopher who argued that scientific knowledge should be grounded in experience. His empiricism supplied an intellectual precedent for the Circle’s anti-metaphysical program.
Verification principle: A criterion that ties the factual meaning of a statement to its possible empirical verification. It became a prominent test for distinguishing meaningful factual claims from metaphysics.
Otto Neurath: An Austrian sociologist, philosopher, and political economist who helped organize the Vienna Circle. He defended physicalism, collective science, and the Circle’s public educational work.
Murder of Moritz Schlick: The 1936 killing of philosopher Moritz Schlick by a former student at the University of Vienna. Schlick’s death weakened the group before the Nazi takeover of Austria.
Analytic-synthetic distinction: The proposed distinction between truths based on meanings alone and truths dependent on facts about the world. The Circle relied on this distinction until later critics challenged its foundations.

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