Journal: Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook

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Springer

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0929-6328
2215-1818

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Publications 1 - 3 of 3
  • Introduction
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Romizi, Donata; Wulz, Monika; Nemeth, Elisabeth (2022)
    Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook ~ Edgar Zilsel: Philosopher, Historian, Sociologist
    In this introduction we want to highlight the variety and complexity of Zilsel’s work, taking, on the one hand, into account his diverse role as a philosopher, historian, sociologist, and political intellectual, without neglecting, on the other, the kind of unity conveyed by his idea of philosophy as a “general theory”: the unity of the realms of man and nature, the transdisciplinary unity of scientific method, the programmatic unity between theory and practice. These forms of unity should not be understood as undifferentiated: as the contributions to this volume show, Zilsel never lost sight of the highly complex, open-ended and uncertain character of reality and scientific inquiry. Also, Zilsel did not conceive of unity as a given fact, but as something still to be realized, which gave his work both its theoretical and practical orientation: Zilsel’s idea of unity arose from his striving to engage with the intricate problems of his time beyond disciplinary boundaries, philosophical or political schools. Finally, we provide an overview of the topics discussed by the authors who contributed to this volume.
  • Edgar Zilsel: Philosopher, Historian, Sociologist
    Item type: Edited Volume
    (2022)
    Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook
  • On Thermodynamics and Society: Edgar Zilsel’s Epistemology and Politics Across Disciplinary Boundaries
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Wulz, Monika (2022)
    Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook ~ Edgar Zilsel: Philosopher, Historian, Sociologist
    This paper examines Edgar Zilsel’s reflections on the methods of historical and sociological research. It shows how Zilsel drew on the natural sciences, especially statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, to justify his methodological approach to the empirical research of collective phenomena in history and the social sciences. His aim was to renegotiate the relation between the natural sciences, social science, and the humanities. This paper also traces the relation of Zilsel’s methodological argumentation to his political thought, based on his political writings and correspondence. It argues that relations between his intellectual work and his political thought existed already as early as 1918 in the context of his Geniereligion but that his methodological and his political ideas became closely interconnected from the beginning of the 1920s onwards.
Publications 1 - 3 of 3