Neurath Reconsidered

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction

   • Jordi Cat, Adam Tamas Tuboly

   Pages 1-20

3. Otto Neurath: Life and Work

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

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   2. A Viennese Library in Exile: Otto Neurath and the Heritage of Central European Culture in the Anglo-Saxon World

      • Friedrich Stadler

      Pages 23-44

   3. Otto Neurath: The Philosopher in the Cave

      • Don Howard

      Pages 45-65

   4. Science and Socialism: Otto Neurath as a Political Writer (1919–1932)

      • Günther Sandner

      Pages 67-87

   5. United by Action: Neurath in England

      • Adam Tamas Tuboly

      Pages 89-113

4. Science, Society, and Method

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115

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   2. Visualizing Relations in Society and Economics: Otto Neurath’s Isotype-Method Against the Background of his Economic Thought

      • Elisabeth Nemeth

      Pages 117-140

   3. Traveling Exhibitions in the Field: Settlements, War-Economy, and the Collaborative Practice of Seeing, 1919–1925

      • Sophie Hochhäusl

      Pages 141-176

   4. Generating Cognitive Tools: Neurath’s Educational Ideal and the Concept of ISOTYPE

      • Angélique Groß

      Pages 177-195

   5. Rationality and Pseudo-Rationality in Political Economy: Neurath, Mises, Weber

      • Thomas Uebel

      Pages 197-215

   6. Neurath’s Theory of Theory Classification: History, Optics & Epistemology

      • Gábor Á. Zemplén

      Pages 217-238

5. Logic and Semantics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 239-239

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   2. Neurath and the Legacy of Algebraic Logic

      • Jordi Cat

      Pages 241-337

   3. Neurath and Carnap on Semantics

      • A. W. Carus

      Pages 339-361

   4. Rejecting Semantic Truth: On the Significance of Neurath’s Syntacticism

      • Derek Anderson

      Pages 363-382

6. Context and Influence

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 383-383

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   2. What a Difference a Decade Makes: The Planning Debates and the Fate of the Unity of Science Movement

      • George A. Reisch

      Pages 385-411

   3. Of Tennis Courts and Fireplaces: Neurath’s Internment on the Isle of Man and his Politics of Design

      • Michelle Henning

      Pages 413-434

This highly readable book is a collection of critical papers on Otto Neurath (1882-1945). It comprehensively re-examines Neurath’s scientific, philosophical and educational contributions from a range of standpoints including historical, sociological and problem-oriented perspectives. Leading Neurath scholars disentangle and connect Neurath’s works, ideas and ideals and evaluate them both in their original socio-historical context and in contemporary philosophical debates. Readers will discover a new critical understanding.

Drawing on archive materials, essays discuss not only Neurath’s better-known works from lesser-known perspectives, but also his lesser-known works from the better-known perspective of their place in his overall philosophical oeuvre. Reflecting the full range of Neurath's work, this volume has a broad appeal. Besides scholars and researchers interested in Neurath, Carnap, the Vienna Circle, work on logical empiricism and the history and philosophy of science, this book will also appeal to graduate students in philosophy, sociology, history and education. Readers will find Neurath’s thoughts described and evaluated in an accessible manner, making it a good read for those beyond the academic world such as social leaders and activists.

The book includes the edited 1940-45 Neurath-Carnap correspondence and the English translation of Neurath's logic papers.

• Otto Neurath
• Logical Empiricism
• Vienna Circle
• Unified Science
• Pictorial Education
• History of Analytic Philosophy
• Isotype
• Practice of Seeing
• History of Optics
• Theory Classification
• Semantic Truth
• Neurath's Syntacticism
• Antimetaphysical Metaphysics
• Multiplicity and Unity
• Meyer Shapiro
• First Vienna Circle
• Applying Utopias

• Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, USA

  Jordi Cat

• Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

  Adam Tamas Tuboly

Jordi Cat is associate professor of history and philosophy of science at Indiana University. He has published numerous articles in philosophy of science, history of science and history of philosophy of science, with an emphasis on issues concerning unification, the application of mathematics, the relation between science and philosophy, and cultural and political dimensions of philosophy and scientific cognition. He is co-author of Otto Neurath: Philosophy Between Science and Politics (Cambridge UP, 1996) (with N. Cartwright, C. Fleck and T. Uebel), Maxwell, Sutton and the Birth of Color Photography (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and Fuzzy Pictures as Philosophical Problem and Scientific Practice (Springer, 2016).

Adam Tamas Tuboly is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He works mainly on the history of philosophy of science, especially on the history and significance of logical empiricism. He edited a special issue on the life and work of Philipp Frank (Studies in East European Thought, 2017), and a volume on Logical Empiricism and the Physical Sciences: From Philosophy of Nature to Philosophy of Physics(with Sebastian Lutz, Routledge, forthcoming). He works now on a monograph about Otto Neurath’s years in England and their relevance for the history and sociology of philosophy (Neurath in England: The Planned Reconstruction of Logical Empiricism).