FRIEDRICH WAISMANN CAUSALITY AND LOGICAL POSITIVISM VIENNA CIRCLE INSTITUTE YEARBOOK

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1 FRIEDRICH WAISMANN CAUSALITY AND LOGICAL POSITIVISM VIENNA CIRCLE INSTITUTE YEARBOOK 15

2 VIENNA CIRCLE INSTITUTE YEARBOOK 15 Institut Wiener Kreis Society for the Advancement of the Scientifi c World Conception Series-Editor: Friedrich Stadler University of Vienna, Austria and Director, Institut Wiener Kreis Advisory Editorial Board: Jacques Bouveresse, Collège de France, Paris, France Martin Carrier, University of Bielefeld, Germany Nancy Cartwright, London School of Economics, UK Richard Creath, Arizona State University, USA Massimo Ferrari, University of Torino, Italy Michael Friedman, Stanford University, USA Maria Carla Galavotti, University of Bologna, Italy Peter Galison, Harvard University, USA Malachi Hacohen, Duke University, USA Rainer Hegselmann, University of Bayreuth, Germany Michael Heidelberger, University of Tübingen, Germany Don Howard, University of Notre Dame, USA Paul Hoyningen-Huene, University of Hanover, Germany Clemens Jabloner, Hans-Kelsen-Institut, Vienna, Austria Anne J. Kox, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Martin Kusch, University of Vienna, Austria James G. Lennox, University of Pittsburgh, USA Juha Manninen, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland Thomas Mormann, University of Donostia / San Sebastián, Spain Edgar Morscher, University of Salzburg, Austria Kevin Mulligan, Université de Genève, Switzerland Elisabeth Nemeth, University of Vienna, Austria Julian Nida-Rümelin, University of Munich, Germany Ilkka Niiniluoto, University of Helsinki, Finland Otto Pfersmann, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, France Miklós Rédei, London School of Economics, UK Alan Richardson, University of British Columbia, CDN Gerhard Schurz, University of Düsseldorf, Germany Peter Schuster, University of Vienna, Austria Karl Sigmund, University of Vienna, Austria Hans Sluga, University of California at Berkeley, USA Elliott Sober, University of Wisconsin, USA Antonia Soulez, Université de Paris 8, France Wolfgang Spohn, University of Konstanz, Germany Thomas E. Uebel, University of Manchester, UK Pierre Wagner, Université de Paris 1, Sorbonne, France C. Kenneth Waters, University of Minnesota, USA Jan Wole ski, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland Gereon Wolters, University of Konstanz, Germany Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna, Austria Honorary Consulting Editors: Robert S. Cohen, Boston University, USA Wilhelm K. Essler, University of Frankfurt/M., Germany Kurt Rudolf Fischer, University of Vienna, Austria Adolf Grünbaum, University of Pittsburgh, USA Rudolf Haller, University of Graz, Austria Gerald Holton, Harvard University, USA Jaakko Hintikka, Boston University, USA Allan S. Janik, University of Innsbruck, Austria Andreas Kamlah, University of Osnabrück, Germany Eckehart Köhler, University of Vienna, Austria Brian McGuinness, University of Siena, Italy Erhard Oeser, University of Vienna, Austria Jan Šebestík, CNRS Paris, France Christian Thiel, University of Erlangen, Germany Walter Thirring, University of Vienna, Austria Review Editor: Donata Romizi, University of Vienna, Austria Editorial Work/Layout/Production: Robert Kaller Camilla Nielsen Editorial Address: Institut Wiener Kreis Universitätscampus, Hof 1 Spitalgasse 2-4, A 1090 Wien, Austria Tel.: +431/ (international) or 01/ (national) Fax.: +431/ (international) or 01/ (national) ivc@univie.ac.at Homepage: The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.

3 B.F. McGuinness Editor Friedrich Waismann Causality and Logical Positivism 123

4 Editor Prof. B.F. McGuinness Università di Siena Dipto. Filosofia e Scienze Sociali Via Roma Siena Italy brian.mcguinness@queens.ox.ac.uk ISSN ISBN e-isbn DOI / Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: c Springer Science+Business Media B.V No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL...7 FRIEDRICH WAISMANN CAUSALITY AND LOGICAL POSITIVISM BRIAN MCGUINNESS, Waismann: the Wandering Scholar...9 TRIBUTES TO AND IMPRESSIONS OF FRIEDRICH WAISMANN (by Brian McGuinness, Max and Hedi Lieberman, J. R. Lucas, Frank Cioffi and Gilbert Ryle)...17 MATHIEU MARION, Waismann s Lectures on Causality: An Introduction FRIEDRICH WAISMANN The Decline and Fall of Causality...53 Causality...91 The Logical Force of Expressions A Philosopher Looks at Kafka ALEXANDER BIRD, Waismann Versus Ewing on Causality JOACHIM SCHULTE, Waismann as Spokesman for Wittgenstein JUHA MANNINEN, Waismann s Testimony of Wittgenstein s Fresh Starts in GENERAL PART REPORT/DOCUMENTATION HADWIG KRAEUTLER, CORINNA OESCH, GÜNTHER SANDNER, Otto Neurath s Encyclopedia of the World War : A Contextualisation REVIEW ESSAYS THOMAS MORMANN, One Hundred Years of Philosophy of Science: The View from Munich HAYO SIEMSEN, John T. Blackmore: Two Recent Trilogies on Ernst Mach CHRISTOPH LIMBECK-LILIENAU, Logical Syntax and the Application of Mathematics...323

6 6 Table of Contents REVIEWS Jean Leroux, Une histoire comparée de la philosophie des sciences, Volume I: Aux sources du Cercle de Vienne, Volume II: L empirisme logique en débat, Les Presses de l université Laval, Québec (Canada) (Hans-Joachim Dahms) Ilkka Niiniluoto and Heikki J. Koskinen (eds.), 2002, Wienin piiri, Helsinki: Gaudeamus. (Markus Lammenranta) Thomas Uebel, Empiricism at the Crossroads. The Vienna Circle s Protocol- Sentence Debate. Open Court, Chicago, Ill (Juha Manninen) The Cambridge Companion to Carnap, edited by Michael Friedman and Richard Creath, Cambridge University Press, (Georg Schiemer) OBITUARY: Stephen Toulmin ( ) (Allan Janik) Activities of the Vienna Circle Institute Index of Names...365

7 EDITORIAL Friedrich Waismann ( ) was one of the most gifted students and collaborators of Moritz Schlick. Accepted as a discussion partner by Wittgenstein from 1927 on, he functioned as spokesman for the latter s ideas in the Schlick Circle, until Wittgenstein s contact with this most faithful interpreter was broken off in 1935 and not renewed when exile took Waismann to Cambridge. Nonetheless, at Oxford, where he went in 1939, and eventually became Reader in Philosophy of Mathematics (changing later to Philosophy of Science), Waismann made important and independent contributions to analytic philosophy and philosophy of science (for example in relation to probability, causality and linguistic analysis). The full extent of these only became evident later when the larger (unpublished) part of his writings could be studied. His first posthumous work The Principles of Linguistic Philosophy (1965, 2nd edn.1997; German 1976) and his earlier Einführung in das mathematische Denken (1936) have recently proved of fresh interest to the scientific community. This late flowering and new understanding of Waismann s position is connected with the fact that he somewhat unfairly fell under the shadow of Wittgenstein, his mentor and predecessor. Central to this Yearbook about a life and work familiar to few are unpublished and unknown works on causality and probability. These are commented on in the volume of a conference in Vienna which took place at the beginning of October 2010, which will also include a publication of new or previously scattered material and an overview of Waismann s life. In this regard I am grateful to Brian McGuinness who proposed this volume and served as chairman of the related conference. The general part of this volume contains a publication of Otto Neurath s unpublished programme of an Encyclopedia of the World War in German and English which was found in Moscow archives only recently. In addition, three review essays on the history of philosophy of science, on Ernst Mach literature, and on French studies in the Vienna Circle complement this part together with several reviews and an obituary on Stephen Toulmin by his colleague and collaborator Allan Janik. Vienna, February 2011 Friedrich Stadler (University of Vienna and Institute Vienna Circle)