Tracing the Polysemy of “Enlightenment” within the Viennese Late Enlightenment, around the Vienna Circle

Philosophy of Science Colloquium
The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows.

Date: 08/05/2025

Time: 16h45

Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 3A

Abstract:

Enlightenment features can be found in most groups associated with Late Enlightenment currents in the Viennese interwar period. Beyond each group’s particularities, a few key meanings can be identified: “popularization” through knowledge, a singular structure of ideas behind a visual metaphor, a self-positioning tool, and a critical-emancipatory embodied scientific attitude.
This talk will attempt to sketch these intertwined meanings, and then seek to understand their links with historical Enlightenment figures such as Voltaire and Rousseau. To do so, I will focus on the journals of the monists and freethinkers, writings of Josef Popper-Lynkeus, and the book series “Der Aufstieg” from Anzengruber-Verlag (Suschitzky brothers).