Meta-philosophical Crossbreeding: A New Framework for Mapping the Austrian Tradition of Philosophy

Johannes Brandl (University of Salzburg)

Abstract: The Austrian philosophical tradition is rich with different conceptions of the goals and methods of philosophy. In this talk, I will present a new framework for mapping the Austrian philosophical landscape from the mid-19th to mid-20th century. Deviating from the standard narrative of Austrian philosophy, which consists of two main schools—the Brentanian school and the Logical Empiricist school—my framework distinguishes four main currents associated with four conceptions of philosophy:

1. A logical conception shared by Bolzano, Meinong, and Carnap

2. A psychological conception shared by Brentano, Marty, and Twardowski

3. A linguistic conception shared by Wittgenstein, Schlick, and Waismann

4. A naturalistic conception shared by Mach, Popper, and Feyerabend

These four meta-philosophical positions were not isolated from each other, so we can regard them as part of one tradition. However, as I will argue, there is no need to search for further hidden homogeneity in this tradition. Rather, I suggest tracing the lines of cross-fertilization between these conceptions because they provide the Austrian tradition with its astonishing dynamics.

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