International Encyclopedia of Unified Science

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The International Encyclopedia of Unified Science was a series of books edited by Otto Neurath , Rudolf Carnap and Charles W. Morris .

draft

The development of an "International Encyclopedia of Unified Science" was decided in 1936 at the first "Congress for the Unity of Science". The attempt to create a “unified science” started in 1938, building on earlier efforts by Francis Bacon , Raimundus Lullus , Descartes and Leibniz .

idea

Although unfinished in its implementation, the draft of the encyclopedia was characterized by the fact that it was intended to serve as a manifestation of unified science according to the program of logical empiricism . This medium collects the generated knowledge in an orderly form, maintains and updates it. The encyclopedia is therefore a growing model that, in principle, cannot be completed any more than the search for knowledge itself.

Because it plays a decisive role in the unified scientific knowledge process, it serves the intra- and interdisciplinary understanding between scientists and is therefore a medium in the sense of a communication platform .

Due to its everyday language base, the encyclopedia is generally understandable, so that it also represents a connecting element between science and society: it is available to the social environment, thus also communicates knowledge to society and is therefore considered an "enlightenment vision".

Because the encyclopedia also enables social participation in empirical experience, it creates the intersubjective verifiability that is important for scientific knowledge processes. In this respect, it is considered a control and knowledge tool . Only then does it create the same cognitive abilities for all researchers and intellectual and empirical comprehension for society.

method

Insofar as communication within science and between science and society plays a central role, linguistic conventions for linguistic standardization are indispensable. Accordingly, standardized science will continue to be determined by a single language common to all .

The unified language that emerges on the one hand is derived from everyday language, which is, of course, imprecise, crude and often metaphysical. It should be logically cleaned up and converted into an approximately clear, physicalistic conceptual system. This purified everyday language is supplemented by a highly scientific lexicon of special terminology, which is designed for use within the individual sciences.

On the other hand, the encyclopedia methodically makes use of the educational image method (see Viennese method of image statistics or isotypes ).

didactics

Its onion-like structure, however, is determined by the didactics : There is a core of two volumes that provides a structural introduction to the standardized science. A first layer of six volumes provides information on the methodological principles of the standardized science. All other layers are reserved for individual scientific knowledge. A distinction is made between eight volumes with findings and hypotheses and a further ten volumes with corresponding technological fields of application. The encyclopedia also contains a trilingual dictionary of the standard language, a bibliographic overview, an index and ten picture-pedagogical supplement volumes.

Institutional involvement

From 1933 onwards, Neurath assumed institutional responsibility for the development of the encyclopedia for the Mundaneum Den Haag , which was replaced in 1937 by the specially founded International Institute for the Unity of Science .

implementation

Originally designed by Otto Neurath for up to 26 editions and an additional 10 illustrated books, after Neurath's death in 1945 the two epistemological core volumes were published under the title "Foundations of the Unity of Science". They each contain several monographs, Neurath himself contributed two writings.

Although in 1971 twenty volumes appeared together for the first time, Neurath's unified scientific encyclopedia remains a project idea and utopia.

content

The number of volumes refers to Otto Neurath, Rudolf Carnap, Charles Morris (eds.): International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. 2 volumes. University of Chicago Press, Chicago / Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1938 ff .:

  • Otto Neurath , Niels Bohr , John Dewey , Bertrand Russell , Rudolf Carnap , Charles W. Morris : "Encyclopedia and unified science." Vol. 1
  • Charles W. Morris : Foundations of the theory of signs. 1938, Vol. 1 No. 2
  • Victor Lenzen: Procedures of empirical sciences. 1938, Vol. 1 No. 5
  • Rudolf Carnap : Foundations of logic and mathematics. 1939, Vol. 1 No. 3
  • Leonard Bloomfield : Linguistic aspects of science. 1939, Vol. 1 No. 4th
  • Ernest Nagel : Principles of the theory of probability. 1939, Vol. 1 No. 6th
  • John Dewey : Theory of valuation. 1939, Vol. 2 No. 4th
  • Giorgio De Santillana, Egdard Zilsel: The development of rationalism and empiricism. 1941, Vol. 2 No. 8th
  • Otto Neurath : Foundations of social sciences. 1944, Vol. 2 No. 1
  • Joseph Henry Woodger: The technique of theory construction. 1949, Vol. 2 No. 5
  • Philipp Frank : Foundations of physics. 1946, Vol. 1 No. 7th
  • Erwin Frinlay-Freundlich: Cosmology. 1951, Vol. 1 No. 8th
  • Jørgen Jørgensen: The development of logical empiricism. 1951, Vol. 2 No. 9
  • Egon Brunswik : The conceptual framework of psychology, 1952, Vol. 1 No. 10
  • Carl Hempel : Fundamentals of concept formation in empirical science. 1952, Vol. 2 No. 7th
  • Felix Mainx: Foundations of biology. 1955, Vol. 1 No. 9
  • Abraham Edel: Science and the structure of ethics. 1961, Vol. 2 No. 3
  • Thomas Samuel Kuhn : The structure of scientific revolutions. 1962, Vol. 2 No. 2
  • Gherard Tintner: Methodology of mathematical economics and econometrics. 1968, Vol. 2 No. 6th
  • Herbert Feigl , Charles W. Morris : Bibliography and index. 1969, Vol. 2 No. 10

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otmar Seemann : Incompletely published lexicons and encyclopedias. An addendum to war: MNE. In: Karl H. Pressler (Ed.): From the Antiquariat. Volume 8, 1990 (= Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel - Frankfurter Ausgabe. No. 70, August 31, 1990), pp. A 329 - A 334, here: p. A 332.
  2. ↑ See Otmar Seemann : Incomplete lexicons and encyclopedias. An addendum to war: MNE. In: Karl H. Pressler (Ed.): From the Antiquariat. Volume 8, 1990 (= Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel - Frankfurter Ausgabe. No. 70, August 31, 1990), pp. A 329 - A 334, here: p. A 332.
  3. ^ Neurath, Otto (1938): Unified science as encyclopedic integration. In: ders .: Collected, philosophical and methodological writings 2nd ed. Haller, Rudolf / Rutte, Heiner. Vienna 1981, p. 889
  4. ↑ Groß, Angelique: The image pedagogy Otto Neuraths. Methodical principles of the presentation of knowledge. Publications of the Vienna Circle Institute. Jumper. Heidelberg 2015, p. 22ff
  5. ^ Stadler, Friedrich: Vienna - Berlin - Prague. To the rise of scientific philosophy. In: ders./Haller, Rudolf (ed.): Vienna - Berlin - Prague. The rise of scientific philosophy. Vienna 1993, p. 32
  6. ↑ Groß, Angelique: The image pedagogy Otto Neuraths. Methodical principles of the presentation of knowledge. Publications of the Vienna Circle Institute. Jumper. Heidelberg 2015, p. 22ff
  7. ^ Uebel, Thomas: Critique of Reason and Science. Otto Neurath and the first Vienna Circle. Vienna / New York 2000, p. 331
  8. ↑ Neurath, Otto a. a. (1929): Scientific world view. The Vienna Circle. In: ders .: Collected, philosophical and methodological writings 1. Ed. Haller, Rudolf / Rutte, Heiner. Vienna 1981, p. 305
  9. ↑ Neurath, Otto a. a. (1933): Uniform Science and Psychology In: ders .: Collected, philosophical and methodological writings 2. Ed. Haller, Rudolf / Rutte, Heiner. Vienna 1981, p. 609
  10. ^ Neurath, Otto (1938): Unified science as encyclopedic integration. In: ders .: Collected, philosophical and methodological writings 2nd ed. Haller, Rudolf / Rutte, Heiner. Vienna 1981, p. 892
  11. ↑ ibid., P. 893
  12. ↑ ibid.
  13. ^ Müller, Karl H .: Symbols, Statistics, Computer Design. Otto Neurath's image pedagogy in the computer age. Vienna 1991, pp. 19,28
  14. ^ Neurath, Otto (1936): An international encyclopedia of standardized science. In: ders .: Collected, philosophical and methodological writings 2nd ed. Haller, Rudolf / Rutte, Heiner. Vienna 1981, p. 722
  15. ↑ Hofmann-Grüneberg, Frank: Radical empirical truth theory. A study about Otto Neurath, the Vienna Circle and the problem of truth. Vienna 1988, p. 35f
  16. ^ Neurath, Paul: Otto Neurath (1882-1945). Life and work. In: ders./Nemeth, Elisabeth (ed.): Otto Neurath or the unity of science and society. Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1994, p. 92
  17. ↑ Hofmann-Grüneberg, Frank: Radical empirical truth theory. A study about Otto Neurath, the Vienna Circle and the problem of truth. Vienna 1988, p. 36