Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxvi

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2. The Historical Background

   • Karl Menger

   Pages 1-7

3. The Cultural Background

   • Karl Menger

   Pages 8-17

4. The Philosophical Atmosphere in Vienna

   • Karl Menger

   Pages 18-37

5. Why the Circle Invited me. The Theory of Curves and Dimension Theory

   • Karl Menger

   Pages 38-53

6. Vignettes of the Members of the Circle in 1927

   • Karl Menger

   Pages 54-73

7. Reminiscences of the Wittgenstein Family

   • Karl Menger

   Pages 74-82

8. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Austrian Dictionary

   • Karl Menger

   Pages 83-88

9. Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and the Early Circle

   • Karl Menger

   Pages 89-103

10. On the Communication of Metaphysical Ideas. Wittgenstein’s Ontology

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 104-128

11. Wittgenstein, Brouwer, and the Circle

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 129-139

12. Discussions in the Circle 1927–30

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 140-142

13. Poland and the Vienna Circle

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 143-157

14. The United States 1930–31

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 158-173

15. Discussions in The Circle 1931–34

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 174-177

16. The Circle on Ethics

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 178-193

17. Moritz Schlick’s Final Years

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 194-199

18. Memories of Kurt Gödel

    • Karl Menger

    Pages 200-236

19. Back Matter

    Pages 237-244

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Karl Menger was born in Vienna on January 13, 1902, the only child of two gifted parents. His mother Hermione, nee Andermann (1870-1922), in addition to her musical abilities, wrote and published short stories and novelettes, while his father Carl (1840-1921) was the noted Austrian economist, one of the founders of marginal utility theory. A highly cultured man, and a liberal rationalist in the nine­ teenth century sense, the elder Menger had witnessed the defeat and humiliation of the old Austrian empire by Bismarck's Prussia, and the subsequent establishment under Prussian leadership of a militaristic, mystically nationalistic, state-capitalist German empire - in effect, the first modern "military-industrial complex. " These events helped frame in him a set of attitudes that he later transmitted to his son, and which included an appreciation of cultural attainments and tolerance and respect for cultural differences, com­ bined with a deep suspicion of rabid nationalism, particularly the German variety. Also a fascination with structure, whether artistic, scientific, philosophical, or theological, but a rejection of any aura of mysticism or mumbo-jumbo accompanying such structure. Thus the son remarked at least once that the archangels' chant that begins the Prolog im Himmel in Goethe's Faust was perhaps the most viii INTRODUCTION beautiful thing in the German language "but of course it doesn't mean anything.

• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Polis
• USA
• Vienna
• atmosphere
• communication
• death
• ethics
• interdisciplinarity
• media
• ontology
• philosophy
• subject
• time
• writing

• University of Siena, Siena, Italy

  Brian McGuinness

Policies and ethics