Logical Empiricist Anti-Exceptionalism in its Austro-German Context

Logical Empiricist Anti-Exceptionalism in its Austro-German Context

Thomas Uebel

This talk discusses the anti-exceptionalism of the logical positivists of the Vienna Circle, esp. Carnap and Neurath’s opposition to the separation of the Geistes - from the Naturwissenschaften. After showing that their conceptions of unified science and physicalism do not, contrary to a widely held misconception, entail undue reductionism, I turn to what prompted their adoption. It will be argued that it was motivated not only by instrumental considerations internal to their empiricist programme but also by a concern for standards of scientific and public reason whose erosion had ever more catastrophic consequences in Central Europe as the century progressed.