Edgar Zilsel: Philosopher, Historian, Sociologist

This book provides a new all-round perspective on the life and work of Edgar Zilsel (1891-1944) as a philosopher, historian, and sociologist. He was close to the Vienna Circle and has been hitherto almost exclusively referred to in terms of the so-called Zilsel thesis on the origins of modern science. Much beyond this thesis, Zilsel's brilliant work provides original insights on a broad number of topics, ranging from the philosophy of probability and statistics to the concept of genius, from the issues of scientific laws and theories to the sociological background of science and philosophy, and to the political analysis of the problems of his time. Praised by Herbert Feigl as an outstanding brilliant mind, Zilsel, being as a Social-Democrat of Jewish origins, mostly led a life of hardship marked by emigration and coming to a sudden and tragic end by suicide in 1944. The impossibility of an academic career has hindered the reception of Zilsel's scientific work for a longtime. This volume is a contribution to its late reception, providing new insights especially into his work during his years in Vienna; moreover, it shows the heuristic value of Zilsel's ideas for future scholarly research in philosophy, history, and sociology.

The first edited volume in English on Edgar Zilsel Offers for the first time in English an all-rounded perspective on Zilsel's life and work Brings together scholars from different countries

Auteur

Donata Romizi has studied Philosophy at the University of Bologna (where she also attended the interdisciplinary "Collegio Superiore") and at the University of Vienna (PhD, 2013). She now works at the University of Vienna: she is Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Vice-Director of the postgraduate program "Philosophical Practice" (which she initiated in 2013) at the Postgraduate Center. Her main publications so far have been in the field of (History of) Philosophy of Science: she has published on the philosophy of probability and statistics, on the Vienna Circle and on the issue of scientific determinism. Her book Dem wissenschaftlichen Determinismus auf der Spur (Karl Alber, 2019) was awarded the Karl Alber Prize 2019. Further main publications: Fare i conti con il caso. La probabilità e l'emergere dell'indeterminismo nella fisica moderna (Bologna: Gedit, 2009). "The Vienna Circle's 'Scientific World Conception': Philosophy of Science in the Political Arena", in: HOPOS. The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Vol. 2, No. 2; Fall 2012.

Monika Wulz is a philosopher and historian of science. After finishing her PhD at the University of Vienna, she was a postdoc researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, at the Technical University of Braunschweig, at the University of Konstanz, and at ETH Zurich. Currently, she is a postdoc researcher and lecturer at the Chair of Science Studies at the University of Lucerne. Her research is situated at the intersection of Philosophy of Science, History of Science, and the history of social and economic thought. Her publications focus on the epistemological traditions in French philosophy, including her book Erkenntnisagenten: Gaston Bachelard und die Reorganisation des Wissens (Kadmos, 2010), on the philosophy of Ernst Mach and the Vienna Circle as well as on social and economic aspects of epistemology. Currently, she is working on a book project on the economic foundations of intellectual work in the decades around 1900.

Elisabeth Nemeth has been Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vienna (retired in 2016). Her fields of research are Philosophy and History of Science, Logical Empiricism, Philosophy of the Social Sciences. She was visiting professor at the Université Paris 1 - Sorbonne and the University of Tunis. She served as a board member in various international philosophical societies (Institute Vienna Circle, HOPOS, Austrian Philosophical Society). 2019-2021 she was president of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society. Publications include "Ernst Mach and Logical Empiricism". In: The Routledge Companion to Logical Empiricism. Ed. by T. E. Uebel and C. Limbeck-Lilienau, Routledge, forthcoming. "Visualizing Relations in Society and Economics: Otto Neurath's Isotype-Method Against the Background of his Economic Thought". In: Neurath Reconsidered. New Sources and perspectives. Ed. by J. Cat, A. T. Tuboly. Springer Nature Switzerland 2019, 177-140. "Edgar Zilsel on Historical Laws", in: History of Explanation, Prediction and Confirmation. Proceedings of the ESF project Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective. Ed. by D. Dieks, W.J. Gonzalez, S. Hartmann, T. Uebel, M. Weber, Springer, 521-532.

Contenu
Part I: Edgar Zilsel: Philosopher, Historian, Sociologist.- Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. From the Problem of Genius to the Integration of Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Science: Edgar Zilsel's Life and Work Viewed in the Context of Recent Historiography and Research.- Chapter 3. The Circumstances of Edgar Zilsel's Failed Habilitation. A Case Study on the Instigations of Anti-Semitic and Conservative Academic Networks in the 1920s at the University of Vienna.- Chapter 4. On Thermodynamics and Society: Zilsel's Epistemology and Politics Across Disciplinary Boundaries.- Chapter 5. Edgar Zilsel: Excellent Qualifications of an Awkward Man.- Chapter 6. The Law of Large Numbers. Edgar Zilsel's Attempt at the Foundation of Physical and Socio-historical Laws.- Chapter 7. Facts of Nature or Products of Reason? Edgar Zilsel Caught Between Ontological and Epistemic Conceptions of Natural Laws.- Chapter 8. Applications and Applicability. Zilsel's Criticism of Carnap's Early View on Protocol Statements.- Chapter 9. Laws, Causality, and Retribution Hans Kelsen and Edgar Zilsel. A Marginal Note.- Chapter 10. How to Explain the Modern Personality Cult. Some Reflections on Edgar Zilsel's Studies on the Modern Genius-Veneration.- Chapter 11. Insufficient Recognition: Comparing Julian Hirsch's and Edgar Zilsel's Analyses of the Glorification of Personalities.- Chapter 12. The Religion of Genius Taken Seriously. Edgar Zilsel's Die Geniereligion (1918) Reviewed as a Critical Philosophical Treatise.- Chapter 13. The Epistemological Foundations of the Zilsel Thesis.- Chapter 14. Social and Epistemic Interactions Between Artisans and Scholars in Iberia. A Zilselian Reading of Early Modern Maritime Expansion.- Chapter 15. Engineering and Mathematical Logic. Another 'Zilsel-Case' From the History of Computing.- Chapter 16. Zilsel's Genius, or the Epistemic Fecundity of Neutrality.- Chapter 17. Zilsel, Zilsel: Reconnecting With an Intellectual Legacy That Deserves to be Revived.- Part II: General Part.- Chapter 18. Pragmatism and the A Priori: Lewis, Carnap and Ramsey.- Chapter 19. The First Vienna Circle: What Kind of Formation Was itand Why Does it Matter?.- Chapter 20. Obituary: Jacques Bouveresse (1940-2021). How to Remain Rationalist in a Postmodern World?.- Part III: Reviews.- Chapter 21. David Edmonds, The Murder of Professor Schlick: The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2020; Karl Sigmund, Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science, New York: Basic Books 2017; Karl Sigmund, Sie nannten sich der Wiener Kreis: Exaktes Denken am Rand des Untergangs, Vienna: Springer 2018.- Chapter 22. Eva-Maria Engelen (Ed.), Kurt Gödel: Philosophische Notizbücher/Philosophical Notebooks. Volume 1 and Volume 2, Berlin: De Gruyter 2019/2020.- Chapter 23. Dejan Makovec/Stewart Shapiro (Eds.), Friedrich Waismann: The Open Texture of Analytic Philosophy, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2019.- Chapter 24. Cheryl Misak, Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Power, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2020.