Otto Neurath in Britain

Auteur
Christopher Burke is a design historian and typographer in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading. He was co-curator of the exhibition 'Isotype: International Picture Language' (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2010) and co-editor of Otto Neurath's 'visual autobiography' From Hieroglyphics to Isotype.Adam Tamas Tuboly is a researcher at the HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Philosophy, Budapest, and at the Department of Behavioural Sciences, Medical School, University of Pécs. He is the co-editor of Interpreting Carnap (with Alan Richardson Cambridge, 2024).

Résumé
Otto Neurath (18821945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist and political economist, and one of the most multi-faceted and creative thinkers in the Vienna Circle. Forced into exile by fascism, he was part of the intellectual exodus from Central Europe. After an adventurous escape to England and internment as an 'enemy alien', he enthusiastically adapted to British culture, working on documentary films and publications for the war effort using the Isotype method of visualization. He treasured the British habit of 'muddling through', and debated planning and economics with fellow Central European émigrés, Friedrich Hayek, Karl Mannheim and Karl Popper. Based on new archival research, this book explores a little-known period of Neurath's rich and fascinating life, weaving together biographical, historical, and philosophical strands that reflect the cross-cultural currents of twentieth-century intellectual history through the lens of Neurath's contribution.

Contenu
Introduction; 1. Prelude; 2. From Vienna to the Hague; 3. Escape and internment; 4. Becoming 'British furniture'adapting to life in England; 5. Logical empiricism in Britain; 6. The language problem; 7. Visual education; 8. On German culture and post-war re-education; 9. From socialist to democratic planning in context; 10. 'Sociologist of happiness'; Coda; Bibliography; Index.