Ernst Mach and the Vienna Circle

Abstract

There is a familiar narrative of the development from Ernst Mach’s 'positivism' to the more sophisticated 'neo-positivism' of the Vienna Circle, with language analysis and formal logic as additional ingredients. But we also see an alternative historiography telling of the rise and decline of scientific philosophy and the genetic theory of learning from Mach to the Vienna Circle. Recent research on Mach uncovers a more complex and multifaceted influence and pluralist reception of his work within the Vienna Circle based on a general appreciation of his empiricism and his idea of the unity of science. This chapter reconstructs the complex and diverse reception of Mach by main members of the Vienna Circle, showing the inherent pluralism based on the common anti-Kantian and 'late Enlightenment' consensus between empiricism and pragmatism, with Mach figuring as a critic of 'school philosophy' and a pioneer of contemporary history and philosophy of science. The thesis of a strong positive reception and further development and extension (regarding language and logic) of Mach’s doctrines with a critical distance vis-à-vis academic metaphysical philosophy is demonstrated as a manifestation of Mach’s function as a role model and predecessor of Viennese Logical Empiricism from the 'First Vienna Circle' to the heyday of the Schlick Circle.