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By delineating in this way the historical context of the Vienna Circle, by tracing its origins in the rise of a scientific philosophizing that began in Austria with Bolzano and extended through Brentano and Mach, by exploring the antecedents of the Vienna Circle in the first two decades of this century, by showing, in particular, how the Vienna Circle interacted with a number of other intellectual groups in Vienna (such as the mathematical colloquium conducted by Karl Menger and the circles around Heinrich Gomperz and Ludwig von Mises), how it was engaged in a continuous struggle with the largely conservative and reactionary academic environment, and how it concerned itself with popular education (Volksbildung), Stadler succeeds in showing that the Vienna Circle was indeed a central element in the culture of its time. One certainly takes from his book a deepened grasp of the intellectual, social, and political environment in which the Vienna Circle operated. But Stadler's account also makes clear why the Circle eventually dissolved. For the constant battering by ideological and political enemies (which accused the Circle of being destructive, liberal, anticatholic, Jewish, non-Austrian, etc.) eventually made it impossible for its members to survive at the University and in Austria as a whole. Even before the "Anschluss" in 1938 the hostile climate had forced some members of the Circle to emigrate. The result, ratified, by Hitler's march to Vienna was the complete dispersion but, at the same time, also the internationalization of the Vienna Circle.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-1654-3_37

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