Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. A Life Between Science and Politics: 1. Before Munich; 1.1. Early years; 1.2. War economics; 1.3. During the First World War; 2. The socialisation debate; 2.1. Setting the problem; 2.2. Bauer and Korsch; 2.3. The standard of living; 2.4. Neurath on the structure of the socialist economy; 2.5. The road to socialisation; 2.6. Neurath's position in the debate; 3. In the Bavarian revolution; 3.1. The appointment; 3.2. In office; 3.3. On trial; 4. In Red Vienna; 4.1. People's education; 4.2. The Housing Movement; 4.3. The Museum of Economy and Society; 4.4. The Vienna Circle; 4.5. Exile in The Hague and Oxford; Part II. On Neurath's Boat: 1. The Boat: Neurath's image of knowledge; 2. In the First Vienna Circle; 2.1. Three hypotheses; 2.2. Mach's legacy; 2.3. The 1910 programme; 3. From the Duhem Thesis to the Neurath Principle; 3.1. Normative antifoundationalism 3.2. Radical descriptive antifoundationalism; 3.3. Metatheoretical antifoundationalism; 4; Rationality without foundations; 4.1; The primacy of practical reason; 4.2. Determining the conventions of science; 4.3. The second Boat: one world; 5. A theory of scientific discourse; 5.1. Anti-philosophy, Marxism and radical physicalism; 5.2. The forward defense of naturalism; 5.3. Science as discourse: the theory of protocols; 6. Towards a theory of practice; Part III. Unity on the Earthly Plane: 1. Two stories with a common theme; 2. Science: the stock of instruments; 2.1. From re-represention to action; 2.2. Unity without the pyramid; 3. The attack on method; 3.1. Boats and Ballungen; 3.2. Protocols, precision and atomicity; 3.3. The two Neurath Principles; 4; Where Ballungen come from; 4.1. Duhem's symbols; 4.2. The congestion of events; 4.3. The density of concepts; 4.4. The separability of planning and politics; 4.5. How Marxists think of history; 5. Negotiation, not regulation; Conclusion.

Promotional Information

A study of Neurath's theory of science in its economic, political and social contexts.

Reviews

'The result is a well constructed, lucid and erudite exposition of the scientific philosophy of Neurath.' English Historical Review