Abstract
This book discusses questions concerning mind and matter, substance and accident, and knowledge and experience in the work of a wide range of nineteenth and early twentieth century philosophers, giving a problem-oriented account of Austrian philosophy and its role in the conception of analytic philosophy and logical empiricism. At the centre of the book is the debate about the relation between empirical science and metaphysics, and the question of whether empirical psychology depends on the metaphysics of the soul - the mental substance. Friedrich Albert Lange’s famous dictum to create a “psychology without a soul” pointed the way.
Mark Textor, The Disappearance of the Soul and the Turn against Metaphysics. Austrian Philosophy 1874–1918. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2021. Xv + 386pp. ISBN: 9780198769828.
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Notes
- 1.
In 1913, Mach himself states: “I also owe the emergence of biological epistemology [biologische Erkenntnistheorie] to this influence from the physiological side” (Swoboda 1978, XXXVII). Swoboda has comprehensively presented the influences of Brücke on Mach (see especially p. XXXVII–XLII). Brücke, an early follower of Darwin, also already thought about it in order to connect his theory of perception with Darwinism. His essay “Die Elementarorganismen” (1861), where he compared animal and plant cells with “elementary organism” to explain the origin of cellular activities, became famous. Max Schultze already attributed mental faculties [Seelenäußerungen] to protoplasmic beings. When Mach later indicates that he developed his theory in the early 1860s (Uebel 2019, 505) I think it is reasonable to assume that he was influenced by Brücke.
- 2.
See also Damböck (2020).
- 3.
I am thinking here, to give just a few examples, in particular of philosophers such as Eugen Dühring, Ernst Laas, and also Richard Avenarius.
- 4.
Neurath points out: “The antimetaphysics that Mach taught in Vienna was not an isolated case. In contrast to the German development, a whole generation ran over to positivism, utilitarianism, and empiricism” (p. 691). Personally, I think that it would be downplaying the influence of some philosophers active in Austria too much to count the developments before (and beside) Brentano only as the preparatory substratum in which the antimetaphysical tradition could develop (Hlade 2022).
- 5.
Mach became the founder of Neutral Monism, which is treated as a decisive act in Textor’s book, taking place in the 1860s. Should we therefore not refer to this point in time when thinking about Mach and his role within Austrian philosophy?
- 6.
Already at this time he calls his position a “critical monism” or, following Eugen Dühring, he also speaks of “Wirklichkeitsphilosophie” (Riehl 1874, 1364).
- 7.
I think Riehl is an Austrian philosopher, at least I think we have to call his “Philosophical Criticism” a book of Austrian philosophy, since all three parts were in largely finished before he went to Germany (Hlade and Meer 2021, 13).
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Hlade, J. (2023). Review Essay: A New Book on Austrian Philosophy. In: Cantù, P., Schiemer, G. (eds) Logic, Epistemology, and Scientific Theories - From Peano to the Vienna Circle. Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook, vol 29. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42190-7_14
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