Neurath, Otto

▪ Austrian philosopher and sociologist

born Dec. 10, 1882, Vienna

died Dec. 22, 1945, Oxford

      Austrian philosopher and sociologist noted for interpreting logical-positivist (Logical Positivism) thought as a basis for behaviourist social and economic theory.

      After imprisonment for being associated with the short-lived Bavarian Communist republic in 1919, Neurath went to Vienna (1920) to encourage political and social reform based on Marxist ideology. In an effort to increase communication among scientific disciplines, he organized international conferences on scientific philosophy and edited the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science (Chicago, 1937), the principal effort of his Institute for the Unity of Science (Unity of Science movement), which he had founded at The Hague in 1936, two years after moving to The Netherlands. The war years from 1941 to 1945 he spent at Oxford.

      Neurath's other writings explored classification systems (Foundations of the Social Sciences, 1944; rev. ed. 1947), comparative sociology (Empirische Soziologie, 1931), and economics (“Inventory of the Standard of Living,” monograph, 1935).

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