»The Whole Modern Conception of the World is Founded on the Illusion That the So-called Laws of Nature are the Explanations of Natural Phenomena.« (TLP 6.371) – The Core of the Debate Between Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle

Ulrich Arnswald (University of Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck)

Although there are now many publications on both Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, Friedrich Stadler notes as recently as 2023 that “all is not as well as it could be regarding the scholarship on the relationship between Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle.” At first glance, this may suggest that there is a lack of academic research on the specific aspect of “Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle,” but there are more than sufficient publications on this subject. Rather, Stadler complains on the fact that the core of the conflict between Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle has still not been adequately identified and elaborated upon today: „It is surprising then that despite these flourishing scholarly activities the crucial interaction of Wittgenstein with members of the Vienna Circle (mainly with the Schlick and Waismann) in the decade between the two World Wars has still not been investigated in sufficient depth.”  

Basically, the misunderstanding between Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle began right from the start: The manifesto “Scientific Worldview. The Vienna Circle [1929]” was printed with Wittgenstein's agreement, only to be criticized by him and Schlick for its programmatic style. At the same time, it must be assumed that the signatories of the manifesto, Hans Hahn, Otto Neurath, and Rudolf Carnap, understood Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus primarily as what is now referred to as Wittgenstein's “picture theory of language.” The inclusion of ethics, religion, mysticism and aesthetics in the Tractatus certainly did not escape the attention of the Vienna Circle members, but whether they understood the consequences that Wittgenstein meant for the program of the Vienna Circle is rather unlikely, as Waismann's volume Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle shows.  

According to this volume published after Wittgenstein's death, the core of the conflict must already be laid out in the Tractatus. While most studies focus on the influence of Wittgenstein's Tractatus on the Vienna Circle and only a few on the views of the members of the Vienna Circle on Wittgenstein's significance, to date no one has consulted the Tractatus itself, although this would seem to be the obvious thing to do. The lecture argues that the thesis of Wittgenstein's gradual distancing from his Tractatus philosophy is false and that the points raised by Wittgenstein in his discussions with the Vienna Circle can already be found in his groundbreaking Tractatus.