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Logical Empiricism and Art: The Correspondence Otto Neurath/Meyer Schapiro

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Neurath Reconsidered

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 336))

Abstract

Logical Positivists had a very lively interest in the revolutionary science of their time, but also in modern art and especially in ‘international style’ architecture. Surprisingly they never published a representative volume or longer statement on art and architecture. But: it is not well known that Otto Neurath, their leading organizer and spokesman, invited the (later on) eminent art historian and critic Meyer Schapiro (professor at Columbia University NY) to contribute a volume on art to the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. Schapiro failed to deliver the promised book. But from the extended correspondence and some material in the Schapiro papers one can describe the general direction the thing would have taken. The correspondence is also very interesting, because it also covers questions of the endangered peace and the approaching war, the academic scene in Europe and in the USA, and surprisingly: Martin Heidegger. Neurath died in 1945, but Schapiro came back to the Heidegger theme in 1968 when he wrote his famous harsh criticism of Heidegger’s programmatic long paper “Das Kunstwerk” (the work of art) where he interprets one of Van Gogh’s shoe-paintings. Schapiro’s short article caused much controversy then (even Jacques Derrida intervened).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See for an overview on the situation of philosophy in Vienna after 1945 Dahms and Stadler (2015, 115–123) and the literature mentioned there.

  2. 2.

    See, e.g., Galison (1990), Stadler (1995), Dahms (2004), (2019), Bernhard (2015), (2019a), (2019b).

  3. 3.

    See for autobiographical information Arntz (1982) and (1988).

  4. 4.

    In the otherwise indispensable Neurath biography in Sandner (2014), Schapiro is mentioned nowhere.

  5. 5.

    A few of them have been published already in Schapiro (1999a).

  6. 6.

    Schapiro to Neurath, 17 October 1937.

  7. 7.

    The last letters are: Schapiro to Neurath, 9 September, and Neurath to Schapiro 18 September 1945.

  8. 8.

    Neurath’s last letters have 9 pages (29 September 1942), 6 pages ( 4 September 1945) and 7 pages (18 September 1945). Two of Neurath’s letters (29 March 1940 and the very last of 18 September 1945) carry his typical elephants at the end.

  9. 9.

    Neurath to Charles Morris , 14 March 1938.

  10. 10.

    See also the other articles of the symposium about Meyer Schapiro in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, volume 55, issue 1 (1997) and the contributions on Schapiro to the Oxford Art Journal volume 17, no. 1 (1994).

  11. 11.

    Neurath to Schapiro, 10 July 1939.

  12. 12.

    Neurath to Schapiro, 29 March 1940.

  13. 13.

    For a description and critique of these programs, see Dahms (1997, 100–110).

  14. 14.

    On Neurath’s period in England see Michelle Henning’s, Silke Körber’s and Adam Tamas Tuboly’s chapters in the present volume.

  15. 15.

    Neurath to Morris , 26 February 1943.

  16. 16.

    Schapiro to Neurath, 12 August 1942.

  17. 17.

    Paul Neurath even wrote his dissertation in sociology (under the supervision of Paul Lazarsfeld) on “Social Structure in the German Concentration Camps Dachau and Buchenwald,” which was published only 70 years later; see P. Neurath (2004).

  18. 18.

    Since no biography of Schapiro was published up to now, one has to rely on obituaries and handbook-articles. On Neurath see Sandner (2014).

  19. 19.

    On Neurath’s critique of Plato, see Antonia Soulez’s chapter in the present volume.

  20. 20.

    The “circle” was seemingly a philosophical discussion group, to which Sidney Hook , Ernest Nagel and Schapiro belonged and which tried to combine logical analysis with a prospect of political activism. The correspondence contains in various places information about the group and its decline during World War Two.

  21. 21.

    For an account of Sartre’s and Camus’s relationship to the USA, see Martin (2012).

  22. 22.

    For Schapiro’s further notes on Heidegger and van Gogh , see Schapiro (1994a) and (1994b).

  23. 23.

    I cannot comment on Derrida and all the others who cared to write about the Heidegger/Schapiro-argument.

  24. 24.

    See the booklet accompanying the exhibition: Batchen (2009).

  25. 25.

    These “strolls” are mentioned variously in the correspondence Goodman/ Schapiro.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute Vienna Circle, Vienna, Austria

    Hans-Joachim Dahms

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  1. Hans-Joachim Dahms
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Correspondence to Hans-Joachim Dahms .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Jordi Cat

  2. Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Adam Tamas Tuboly

Unpublished Sources

Unpublished Sources

Columbia University (New York, USA), Special collections department

  • Meyer Schapiro papers

    • Correspondence with

      • Nelson Goodman

      • Martin Heidegger

      • Otto Neurath

Noord Holland Archief, Harlem

  • Otto Neurath papers

    • Correspondence with

      • Meyer Schapiro

      • Charles Morris

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Dahms, HJ. (2019). Logical Empiricism and Art: The Correspondence Otto Neurath/Meyer Schapiro. In: Cat, J., Tuboly, A. (eds) Neurath Reconsidered. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 336. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02128-3_18

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