The State of Research on Logical Empiricism: On the 100th Anniversary of the Vienna Circle

May 16–17, 2025, Institute of Philosophy, UMCS, Lublin (Poland)

Last year marked the centenary of the founding of the Vienna Circle, which went on to become one of the key centers of logical empiricism. Over time, the movement has been perceived in widely differing ways, the most influential being the critique that emerged in the 1950s, leading prominent figures in the philosophy of science to declare the death of logical empiricism. However, the past 35 years have witnessed a distinct shift, exemplified by the title of a book that appeared at the very beginning this period: Rediscovering the Forgotten Vienna Circle. While this work focused primarily on Neurath, it was followed by numerous studies on other figures associated with logical empiricism. In this time, including recent years, our understanding of the movement and the literature surrounding it have been significantly enriched.

This conference seeks, on the one hand, to highlight the impact of this process, focusing primarily on the key areas of scientific activity pursued by members of the Vienna Circle and the Berlin School—logic, philosophy of language, linguistics, the philosophy of mathematics, methodology, and the philosophy, history, and sociology of science. On the other hand, it aims to explore how the understanding and reception of the scientific conception of the world—particularly the social dimension of the neopositivist programme—have evolved over time.

Chair: Marcin Wolski
14:00–14:45 Georg Schiemer (University of Vienna)
From Hilbert’s Program to Carnap’s Wissenschaftslogik

14:50–15:20 Paweł Kawalec (KUL)
Carnap and Conceptual Re-engineering

Abstracts

A conference on the state of research on logical empiricism in view of the centenary of the founding of the Vienna Circle will be held at the Institute of Philosophy of the UMCS on 16-17 May.

The programme and all other information is available at vc100.umcs.pl.