The
Vienna Circle (in
German der
Wiener Kreis) was a group of philosophers who gathered around
Moritz Schlick when he was called to the
Vienna University in 1922, organized in a philosophical association, of which Schlick was chairman, named the
Ernst Mach Society (
Verein Ernst Mach) in honour of
Ernst Mach. Among its members were
Gustav Bergmann,
Rudolf Carnap,
Herbert Feigl,
Philipp Frank,
Kurt Gödel,
Hans Hahn,
Tscha Hung,
Victor Kraft,
Karl Menger,
Richard von Mises,
Marcel Natkin,
Otto Neurath,
Olga Hahn-Neurath,
Theodor Radakovic,
Rose Rand and
Friedrich Waismann. With the exception of Gödel, members of the Vienna Circle had a common attitude towards philosophy, characterized by two main
beliefsThe prehistory of the Vienna Circle began with meetings on the philosophy of science and epistemology from 1908 [1] on, promoted by Philipp Frank, Hans Hahn and Otto Neurath.
Hans Hahn, the oldest of the three (1879–1934), was a mathematician. He received his degree in mathematics in 1902. Afterwards he studied under the direction of Ludwig Boltzmann in Vienna and David Hilbert, Felix Klein and Hermann Minkowski in Göttingen. In 1905 he received the Habilitation in mathematics. He taught at Innsbruck (1905–1906) and Vienna (from 1909).
Otto Neurath (1882–1945) studied sociology, economics and philosophy in Vienna and Berlin. From 1907 to 1914 he taught in Vienna at the Neuen Wiener Handelsakademie (Viennese Commercial Academy). Neurath married Olga, Hahn’s sister, in 1911.
