The Vienna Circle in the Nordic Countries. Networks and Transformations of Logical Empiricism

The rise of scientific (analytic) philosophy since the turn of the twentieth century is linked to the philosophical interaction between, on the one hand, Ernst Mach, the Vienna Circle around Moritz Schlick and Otto Neurath, the Berlin Group (Hans Reichenbach, Carl G. Hempel), and the Prague Group (Rudolf Carnap, Philipp Frank), and, on the other, philosophers and scientists in Denmark (Niels Bohr, Joergen Joergensen), Finland (Eino Kaila, Georg Henrik von Wright and their disciples), Norway (Arne Næss and his students), and Sweden (Åke Petzäll, the journal Theoria and a younger generation of philosophers in Uppsala). In addition, the pure theory of law of Hans Kelsen achieved wide dissemination in the Nordic countries (through, for example, Alf Ross). One of the key events in the relations between the Central European philosophers and those of the Nordic countries was the Second International Congress for the Unity of Science which was arranged in Copenhagen in 1936.

Besides considering the interactions of these groups, the book also pays special attention to their interactions, in the context of the Cold War period following the Second World War, with the so-called Third Vienna Circle and with the Forum Alpbach/Austrian College around Viktor Kraft and Bela Juhos (along with Ludwig Wittgenstein and Paul Feyerabend), where the issues of (philosophical and scientific) realism and "psychologism"—the relationship between psychology and philosophy—were matters of controversy.

By comparison with the more extensively investigated and better known transatlantic transfer and transformation of "positivism" and logical empiricism, the developments outlined above remain

neglected and marginalized topics in historiography. The symposium aims to reveal the remarkable continuity of the philosophical enlightened "Nordic Connection". We intend to shed light on this forgotten communication and to reconstruct these hidden scholarly networks from an historical and logical point of view, thereby evaluating their significance for today’s research.

EDITORIAL FRIEDRICH STADLER, Arne Næss: Dogmas and Problems of Empiricism JAN FAYE, Niels Bohr and the Vienna Circle JUHA MANNINEN, Between the Vienna Circle and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Philosophical Teachers of Georg Henrik von Wright JOHAN STRANG, Between the National and the International – Theoria and the Logical Empiricists CARL-GÖRAN HEIDEGREN, Positivism before Logical Positivism in Nordic Philosophy MARJA JALAVA, The Earliest Extensive Reception of Mach in the Nordic Countries ILKKA NIINILUOTO, Kaila’s Critique of Vitalism ARTO SIITONEN, Kaila and Reichenbach as Protagonists of Naturphilosophie CARL HENRIK KOCH, Jørgen Jørgensen and Logical Positivism THOMAS MORMANN, The Debate on Begriffstheorie between Cassirer, Marc-Wogau – and Schlick THOMAS UEBEL, The Nature and Status of Metatheory. The Debate between Otto Neurath and Åke Petzäll MICHAEL VON BOGUSLAWSKI, Young Ketonen and His Supreme Logical Discovery FREDRIK W. THUE, Empiricism, Pragmatism, Behaviorism: Arne Næss and the Growth of American-styled Social Research in Norway after World War IIJaakko Hintikka in the Library of Living Philosophers: A Dialogue between Simo Knuuttila and Jaakko Hintikka Report/Documentation: GERALD HOLTON, On Unity and Disunity in the Sciences: Variations of Ancient Thematas Review Essay: THOMAS MORMANN, Enlightenment and Formal Romanticism – Carnap’s Account of Philosophy as Explication Reviews