MORITZ SCHLICK: BIOGRAPHY, PHILOSOPHY AND WORKS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) was a German logical empiricist philosopher, leader and founder of the European school of positivist philosophers known as the “Vienna Circle”. His most enduring contribution includes a wide range of philosophical achievements within science.

Schlick was heir to the tradition of philosophical physicists founded in the 19th century. In addition, he was influential in the movement of the Prussian philosopher, Immanuel Kant. As his fame grew internationally, Schlick was invited to speak in London, teaching at Stanford, and receiving a number of offers to join prestigious foreign universities.

Georg Fayer, via Wikimedia Commons

In addition, he produced a series of essays and works that had a lasting influence on contemporary thought. The influence of both Schlick and the Vienna Circle thinkers has endured through time and even to this day.

Biography

Early years and beginnings of his work

Moritz Schlick was born on April 14, 1882 in Berlin, Germany, with the full name of Friedrich Albert Moritz Schlick. He grew up surrounded by a wealthy family; son of a factory manager named Ernst Albert Schlick and mother housewife Agnes Arndt.

He began his studies in physics at the University of Heidelberg, then went on to the University of Lausanne, and finally attended the University of Berlin.

His ambition led him to work with Max Planck and he received his Ph.D. in 1904. In addition, he completed one of his first essays, entitled On the Reflection of Light in an Inhomogeneous Medium.

After a year of experimental work in Göttingen, he went to Zurich where he devoted himself to the study of philosophy. Then, in 1908, he published the work The Wisdom of Life, on eudaemonism, a Greek concept with the theory that happiness is the pursuit of ethics.

In 1910, he published an essay entitled The Nature of Truth According to Modern Logic. Later, he published another series of essays related to science, philosophy, and epistemology. In 1915, Schlick published an article on Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

The Vienna Circle

After securing his post at the universities of Rostock and Kiel, in 1922, he moved to Vienna and took up the chair "philosophy of nature."

Since he arrived in Vienna, Schlick has demonstrated his success in the field, which is why he was invited to lead a group of scientists and philosophers who met regularly on Thursdays to discuss philosophical issues within science.

Initially it was called "Ernst Mach Association", until they became better known by the name of "Vienna Circle". In this sense, they were a group committed to the ideals of the Enlightenment, in logical empiricism, neopositivism and the influence of metaphysics.

Between 1925 and 1926, the youth group discussed the work of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who advanced toward theories of symbolism and the importance of language. Following Schlick and the group's impression of the work, they decided to spend some time studying it.

Schlick and the group considered looking for Wittgenstein, who agreed to join after ten years of disappearance in the field of philosophy.

However, the author of the project noted that his work had been misinterpreted in an essay conducted by the circle. Following that event, Schlick's bond was lost from the Vienna Circle in 1932.

Assassination and dissolution of the Vienna Circle

With the onset of World War II, political pressure was exerted by the Germans and the authoritarian regime in Austria. For that reason, many of the members of the Vienna Circle had to flee to the United States and Great Britain, causing the group to disintegrate completely.

Despite this, Schlick remained at the University of Vienna with his usual life. Johann Nelböck, a philosophy student, began to threaten Schlick and did so for four years. On June 22, 1936, at the age of 54, the German philosopher was killed at the hands of the student with four shots to the leg and abdomen.

Nelböck was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and, furthermore, social and political factors were thought to have influenced the decision to murder. Nelböck confessed to the act, was held without resistance, but did not regret his actions.

In fact, Nelböck claimed that the Schlick's anti-metaphysical philosophy had interfered with his moral restraint. After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, the murderer was released on parole after having served two years of his sentence, which had to be extended to ten years.

Philosophy

Logical positivism

The central doctrines of this school were developed by a group of philosophers, logicians and scientists from the renowned Vienna Circle, including Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Carnap and Aldred Jule Ayer.

Logical positivism went one step further with respect to the scientific method as the only valid form of knowledge. Contrary to traditional positivism, logical positivism was based on the empirical; that is, in the form of knowledge through experience and what can be observable.

For neopositivists nothing can be learned about the world other than through the methods of empirical science.

On the other hand, they established the verification principle, which explains that the meaning of any statement is given so that its truth or falsehood can be corroborated. Neopositivists claim that, ultimately, the only valid methods are observation and experimentation.

Schlick clung to "critical realism," which means that epistemology (or the study of knowledge) is not obliged to search for absolute and true knowledge, but only for what resists critical evidence.

Antimetaphysics and language

Schlick argued that the purpose of the languages ​​used in science is to make possible the construction of expressions that can be true or false; the philosopher followed the same line of logical positivism only applied to a certain point to grammar.

Many philosophers, especially those of the Vienna Circle, have argued that metaphysics is practically impossible. Most metaphysical claims tend to be meaningless.

On the other hand, if all those who defend metaphysics affirm that they have meaning, it is almost impossible to verify their truth or falsity; it goes beyond the cognitive capacities of the human being.

The German philosopher argued that metaphysics violates all the logical rules of language; consequently, the statements of metaphysics cannot be true or false, but something totally subjective.

Ultimately, Schlick did not believe in metaphysics because it does not meet the criteria for verification of meaning that he had postulated with his team at the Vienna Circle. Even so, the one who became most obsessed with this idea was Moritz Schlick himself, who defended it to the end.

Plays

Space and Time in Contemporary Physics

In 1917, he published Space and Time in Contemporary Physics, a philosophical introduction to the new physics of Relativity that was highly acclaimed by Einstein himself and many others.

Thanks to that publication, Moritz Schlick became known in the university world. It is for this reason that the work is considered relevant both for his philosophical career and for his scientific life.

Presented in a general philosophical scheme, Schlick discussed Relativity as an objective and logical distinction, in which scientific claims can be formulated.

General Theory of Knowledge

Between 1918 and 1925, Schlick worked on what was his most important work in his reasoning against the synthesis of knowledge, entitled The General Theory of Knowledge.

This work criticizes the synthetic a priori knowledge, in which it is argued that the only obvious truths are those that become statements such as formal logic or mathematics; that is, the statements must be verifiable or observable.

Schlick invited the type of a posteriori knowledge, which depended solely on experience to be testable.

For Schlick, the truth of all statements must be evaluated by empirical evidence. If a statement is proposed that is not a definition and cannot be confirmed or falsified by the evidence, such a statement is "metaphysical"; this, for Schlick, was synonymous with something "nonsensical."

Schlick concentrated on gnoseology, which studies the origin and limits of knowledge in general, that is, it evades particular knowledge such as physics or mathematics and concentrates on broader things.

The members of the Vienna Circle were clearly in agreement with this position, reason why Schlick gave foot to the beginning of its work.

Ethics issues

Between 1926 and 1930, Schlick worked on his work entitled Problems of Ethics. Many of the members and companions of the circle supported him by including ethics as a branch of philosophy.

Two years later, Schlick offered one of the most accurate definitions of positivism and realism, in which he completely denies metaphysics and in a sense tried to apply the theory to a compendium of works.

Finally, Schlick applied this method to ethics, concluding that a priori arguments for absolute values ​​are meaningless because they do not satisfy the necessary logical criteria. It also argued that actions carried out under the sense of "duty" cannot be given an ethical value if the result is to cause infidelity.

In this work, Schlick argued that the only true beings are elements of experience. Schlick's anti-metaphysical view was a marked influence on the Vienna Circle and they even adopted that rather similar view to some extent.

References

1. Moritz Schlick, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (2017). Taken from plato.stanford.edu
2. Analytic Philosophy, Avrum Stroll & Keith S. Donnellan, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
3. Moritz Schlick, Wikipedia in English, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org
4. Moritz Schlick, New World Encyclopedia, (nd). Taken from newworldencyclopedia.org
5. Moritz Schlick and the Vienna Circle, Manuel Casal Fernández, (1982). Taken from elpais.com