This book provides a new all-round perspective on the life and work of Edgar Zilsel (1891-1944) as a philosopher, historian, and sociologist. He was close to the Vienna Circle and has been hitherto almost exclusively referred to in terms of the so-called "Zilsel thesis" on the origins of modern science. Much beyond this "thesis", Zilsel's brilliant work provides original insights on a broad number of topics, ranging from the philosophy of probability and statistics to the concept of "genius", from the issues of scientific laws and theories to the sociological background of science and philosophy, and to the political analysis of the problems of his time. Praised by Herbert Feigl as an "outstanding brilliant mind", Zilsel, being as a Social-Democrat of Jewish origins, mostly led a life of hardship marked by emigration and coming to a sudden and tragic end by suicide in 1944. The impossibility of an academic career has hindered the reception of Zilsel's scientific work for a longtime. This volume is a contribution to its late reception, providing new insights especially into his work during his years in Vienna; moreover, it shows the heuristic value of Zilsel's ideas for future scholarly research - in philosophy, history, and sociology.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Part I: Edgar Zilsel: Philosopher, Historian, Sociologist. - Chapter 1. Introduction. - Chapter 2. From the Problem of Genius to the Integration of Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Science: Edgar Zilsel s Life and Work Viewed in the Context of Recent Historiography and Research. - Chapter 3. The Circumstances of Edgar Zilsel s Failed Habilitation. A Case Study on the Instigations of Anti-Semitic and Conservative Academic Networks in the 1920s at the University of Vienna. - Chapter 4. On Thermodynamics and Society: Zilsel s Epistemology and Politics Across Disciplinary Boundaries. - Chapter 5. Edgar Zilsel: Excellent Qualifications of an Awkward Man. - Chapter 6. The Law of Large Numbers. Edgar Zilsel s Attempt at the Foundation of Physical and Socio-historical Laws. - Chapter 7. Facts of Nature or Products of Reason? Edgar Zilsel Caught Between Ontological and Epistemic Conceptions of Natural Laws. - Chapter 8. Applications and Applicability. Zilsel s Criticism of Carnap s Early View on Protocol Statements. - Chapter 9. Laws, Causality, and Retribution Hans Kelsen and Edgar Zilsel. A Marginal Note. - Chapter 10. How to Explain the Modern Personality Cult. Some Reflections on Edgar Zilsel s Studies on the Modern Genius-Veneration. - Chapter 11. Insufficient Recognition: Comparing Julian Hirsch s and Edgar Zilsel s Analyses of the Glorification of Personalities. - Chapter 12. The Religion of Genius Taken Seriously. Edgar Zilsel s Die Geniereligion (1918) Reviewed as a Critical Philosophical Treatise. - Chapter 13. The Epistemological Foundations of the Zilsel Thesis. - Chapter 14. Social and Epistemic Interactions Between Artisans and Scholars in Iberia. A Zilselian Reading of Early Modern Maritime Expansion. - Chapter 15. Engineering and Mathematical Logic. Another `Zilsel-Case From the History of Computing. - Chapter 16. Zilsel s Genius, or the Epistemic Fecundity of Neutrality. - Chapter 17. Zilsel, Zilsel: Reconnecting With an Intellectual Legacy That Deserves to be Revived. - Part II: General Part. - Chapter 18. Pragmatism and the A Priori: Lewis, Carnap and Ramsey. - Chapter 19. The First Vienna Circle: What Kind of Formation Was it and Why Does it Matter? . - Chapter 20. Obituary: Jacques Bouveresse (1940-2021). How to Remain Rationalist in a Postmodern World? . - Part III: Reviews. - Chapter 21. David Edmonds, The Murder of Professor Schlick: The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2020; Karl Sigmund, Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science, New York: Basic Books 2017; Karl Sigmund, Sie nannten sich der Wiener Kreis: Exaktes Denken am Rand des Untergangs, Vienna: Springer 2018. - Chapter 22. Eva-Maria Engelen (Ed.), Kurt Gödel: Philosophische Notizbücher/Philosophical Notebooks. Volume 1 and Volume 2, Berlin: De Gruyter 2019/2020. - Chapter 23. Dejan Makovec/Stewart Shapiro (Eds.), Friedrich Waismann: The Open Texture of Analytic Philosophy, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2019. - Chapter 24. Cheryl Misak, Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Power, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2020.
