Article ID: CBB001210954

The Vienna Circle's “Scientific World-Conception”: Philosophy of Science in the Political Arena (2012)

unapi

Romizi, Donata (Author)


HOPOS
Volume: 2, no. 2
Issue: 2
Pages: 205-242

This article is intended as a contribution to the current debates about the relationship between politics and the philosophy of science in the Vienna Circle. I reconsider this issue by shifting the focus from philosophy of science as theory to philosophy of science as practice. From this perspective I take as a starting point the Vienna Circle's scientific world-conception and emphasize its practical nature: I reinterpret its tenets as a set of recommendations that express the particular epistemological attitude in which both the Vienna Circle's (doing) philosophy of science and its political engagement were rooted. Regarding politics, and referring to new primary sources, I reconstruct how the scientific world-conception placed the Vienna Circle within a neoliberal-socialist political network that pursued concrete political aims. In light of my reconstruction I shall argue that neither the Vienna Circle's alleged ethical noncognitivism nor its alleged adhesion to the Weberian ideal of a value-free science rules out the possibility of ascribing to the Vienna Circle a politically engaged philosophy of science: the case of the Vienna Circle shows how philosophy of science, as a public activity, can itself become a form of political engagement, even without necessarily entailing a theory of objective values.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001210954/

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Authors & Contributors
Uebel, Thomas E.
Richardson, Sarah S.
Luzzini, Francesco
Martinetti, Piero
Natali, Luca
Geoffrey Stokes
Concepts
History of philosophy of science
Philosophy and politics
Discipline formation
Philosophers of science, modern
Professions and professionalization
Philosophy of science
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
Places
Italy
England
United States
Spain
South Africa
Austria
Institutions
Vienna Circle
Moscow Society for the Study and Advancement of the History of Science
Rossiiskaia Akademiia Nauk
American Sociological Association
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