Pragmatism and the Vienna Circle, 1928-1932: A Cautionary Tale

This paper considers the contention that pragmatist thought entered the Vienna Circle via Wittgenstein’s dissemination of Ramsey’s conception of variable hypotheticals in the guise of his view of “hypotheses” as linguistic rules. It is argued that support for this view on the Circle’s left wing was spotty and lasted at best until 1931 and that, given it was accompanied by the demand for strict verificationism, it was not understood by them in a pragmatist spirit at all but as deeply foundationalist and therefore rejected. The sources of the left wing’s pragmatism lie elsewhere.

Thomas Uebel is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Manchester, UK. His books include Empiricism at the Crossroads: The Vienna Circle’s Protocol-Sentence Debate (2007) and an edition of Neurath’s Economic Writings (2004).