Workshop II: Adverse Allies: Logical Empiricism and Austrian Economics

The FWF ESPRIT research project “Adverse Allies: Logical Empiricism and Austrian Economics”, the Institute of Philosophy and Scientific Method (JKU Linz), the Institute Vienna Circle (University of Vienna), and the Vienna Circle Society host two workshops in 2025. The first workshop was in Vienna, opens an external URL in a new window (12.02-14.02.2025).

The organizers seek submissions for contributed talks for the second workshop which will be held at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz, Austria, between Sept 23-25, 2025. We are delighted to be able to welcome the speakers in person!

Workshop II in Linz: 23.09.-25.09.2025

Logical empiricism and Austrian economics are arguably the two internationally most influential intellectual movements with Viennese roots. The Vienna Circle and the Austrian School have shaped the development of philosophical, scientific, and political debate in the 20th century. In the 21st century, logical empiricism has undergone extensive re-evaluation, while the Austrian School experiences another revival.

Yet, despite numerous connections and interactions between the two movements, their relationship has captured surprisingly sparse attention in the historical and philosophical literature. If an account is provided at all, logical empiricists and Austrian economists are portrayed as philosophically, scientifically, and politically antithetical groups. Among the most frequently mentioned contrastive pairs of catchwords are empiricism vs apriorism, formal methods vs verbal reasoning, and socialism vs classical liberalism.

Acknowledging the existence of disagreements between logical empiricism and the Austrian School, recent scholarship has challenged the received view of antithetical opposition by reconstructing hitherto neglected compatibilities and similarities between the two movements.

This workshop aims to advance historical as well as systematic discussions on the relationship between logical empiricism and Austrian economics. Contributions that fruitfully inform contemporary debates in philosophy, methodology, politics, or the sciences are particularly welcome.

Topics for workshop II include but are not limited to:
· Karl Menger and Felix Kaufmann as mediators between LE and AE
· common influences: Frege, Husserl, Kant, Mach, Wittgenstein
· non-cognitivism, the fact/value distinction, and the ideal of value-neutrality
· the principle of tolerance and polylogism
· logical tolerance, methodological tolerance, political liberalism
· logicism and the logic of action
· naturalism vs antinaturalism, unity vs disunity of science, scientific pluralism and pseudorationality
· essentialism and its discontents (Menger, Wieser, Neurath, Popper, Rothbard,…)
· defenses of democracy in Viennese Late Enlightenment

expertise, education, and democracy

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The first workshop in Vienna focused on:
· pros and cons of formal methods in the social sciences (index numbers, models, …)
· counterfactual reasoning and thought experiments (imaginary constructions, scientific utopianism, Robinsonades, …)
· the socialist calculation debates
· assessments of social welfare and universal basic income
· notions of rationality, irrationality, and pseudorationality
· justifications of praxeology
· explications of the fundamental axiom of praxeology
· the quest for certainty and fallibilism
· origins and methodology of game theory
· methodological reflections: rational reconstructions, …

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Both workshops are supported by the Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology (DLMPST) of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.

Queries: Alexander Linsbichler (alexander.linsbichler@jku.at)