The Vienna Circle and Religion

This book is the first systematic and historical account of the Vienna Circle that deals with the relation of logical empiricists with religion as well as theology. Given the standard image of the Vienna Circle as a strong anti-metaphysical group and non-religious philosophical and intellectual movement, this book draws a surprising conclusion, namely, that several members of the famous Moritz Schlick-Circle - e.g., the left wing with Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Philipp Frank, Edgar Zilsel, but also Schlick himself - dealt with the dualisms of faith/ belief and knowledge, religion and science despite, or because of their non-cognitivist commitment to the values of Enlightenment. One remarkable exception was the philosopher and Rabbi Joseph Schächter, who wrote explicitly on religion and philosophy after the linguistic turn. The book also covers another puzzling figure: the famous logician Kurt Gödel, who wrote on theology and the ontological proof of God in his so far unpublished notebooks. The book opens up new perspectives on the Vienna Circle with its internal philosophical and political pluralism and is of value to philosophers, historians and anybody who is interested in the relation between science and religion.

Auteur

Esther Ramharter is Associate Professor for Philosophy at the University of Vienna. She holds a doctorate degree in philosophy and in mathematics. Her areas of expertise include philosophy of logic and of mathematics, philosophy of religion, and Wittgenstein-research.

Contenu

Editorial.- Part I: The Vienna Circle and Religion.- Chapter 1. Carnap's Fundamental Philosophical Commitment: From Religious Origins to Kantian Non-Cognitivism, 1911-21 (A. W. Carus).- Chapter 2. Carnap's Non-Cognitivism and His Views on Religion. Against the Background of the Herbartian Philosophy of His Grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm Dörpfeld (Christian Damböck).- Chapter 3. The Place of Religion. An Open Question in Schlick's Philosophy of Culture (Massimo Ferrari).- Chapter 4. The Continuous Line from the Formulations of the Magicians to the Formulations of the Sociologists. Otto Neurath on the Anthropology of Magic and Religion (Marco Brusotti).- Chapter 5. God Never Does Mathematics Hans Hahn on Religion (Julia Schäfer).- Chapter 6. A Rabbi Among the Apostates? Josef Schächter and Religion in the Vienna Circle (Malachi Hacohen).- Chapter 7. Josef Schächter on Religion and the Philosophy of Language: Preferring Beginnings to Ends (Esther Ramharter).- Chapter 8. Philipp Frank and the Conference for Science, Philosophy and Religion, 1940-1968 (Friedrich Stadler).- Chapter 9. Kurt Gödel's Dogmatic Theology (Tim Lethen).- Chapter 10. Kurt Gödel's Reception of Charles Hartshorne's Ontological Proof (Annika Kanckos and Tim Lethen).- Part II: General Part.- Chapter 11. The Vienna Circle in China: The Story of Tscha Hung (Yi Jiang).- Chapter 12. Tolerance, Disagreement, and the Practical Dimension of Philosophy Warren Hagstrom's Interview with Carnap (Adam Tamas Tuboly).- Part III: Reviews.- Chapter 13. Johannes Feichtinger/Franz L. Fillafer/Jan Surman (Eds.), The Worlds of Positivism. A Global Intellectual History, 1770-1930. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2018 (Robert Frühstückl).- Chapter 14. Donata Romizi, Dem wissenschaftlichen Determinismus auf der Spur. Freiburg/München: Verlag Karl Alber 2019 (Marij van Strien).- Chapter 15. Bernt Österman (Ed.), Skriv så ofta du kan: Brevväxlingen mellan Georg Henrik von Wright och Eino Kaila 1937 1958 [Write as often as You Can: The Correspondence between Georg Henrik von Wright and Eino Kaila 1937 1958.]. Helsingfors: Svenska Litteratursällskapet 2020 (Sami Pihlström).- Index.