The Spirit of the Vienna Circle Devoted to Questions of Lebens- and Weltauffassung

The history of the Vienna Circle is bound up with what was called the Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Given, however, the requirements of the members when it came to deciding whether or not a sentence expressed scientific knowledge, the basic sentences expressing a Lebens- und Weltauffassung would scarcely qualify as such, nor would hypotheses about a scientific worldview. The Wissenschaftlichkeit of physicalism, logical behaviorism, logical syntax, unity of science, were hypothetical at best, and in my opinion should not be identified with the total philosophical enterprise of the Vienna Circle. To its strictly speaking philosophical enterprise I attribute a certain kind of scientific or research attitude and clarity as much as any set of philosophical opinions of a substantial sort.