•  2
    ABSTRACT Neurath’s scientific utopianism is the proposal that the social sciences should engage in the elaboration, development, and comparison of counterfactual scenarios, the ‘utopias’. Such scenarios can be understood as centerpieces of scientific thought experiments, that is, in exercises of imagination that not only promote conceptual revision, but also stimulate creativity to deal with experienced problems, as utopias are efforts to imagine what the future could look like. Moreover, utopia…Read more
  •  41
    Neurath’s scientific utopianism is the proposal that the social sciences should engage in the elaboration, development, and comparison of counterfactual scenarios, the ‘utopias’. Such scenarios can be understood as centerpieces of scientific thought experiments, that is, in exercises of imagination that not only promote conceptual revision, but also stimulate creativity to deal with experienced problems, as utopias are efforts to imagine what the future could look like. Moreover, utopian thought…Read more
  •  34
    O utopianismo científico de Neurath é a proposta para que as ciências sociais se envolvam na elaboração, desenvolvimento e comparação de cenários contrafactuais, as ‘utopias’. Tais cenários podem ser entendidos como peças centrais de experimentos de pensamento científicos, isto é, em exercícios da imaginação que não apenas promovem a revisão conceitual, mas também estimulam a criatividade para lidar com problemas vivenciados, já que utopias são esforços para imaginar como o futuro poderia ser. A…Read more
  •  5
    This note identifies and comments on selected crucial traits of Robert Aumann’s philosophy of game theory. In doing so, it aims at carving out and expressing some notions tacitly held by many working game theorists and ideally even at triggering subsequent reflection on the philosophy of game theory in general. According to my reconstruction of Aumann’s position, sophisticated, relatively precise rules of language—an ultra-refined grammar for interactions—constitute the heart of game theory. Con…Read more
  •  15
    Mainstream economics has been accused of excessive mathematization, whereas the rejection of mathematical and other formal methods is often cited as a crucial trait of Austrian economics. Based on a systematic discussion of potential benefits and drawbacks of formalization, this paper corroborates legitimate concerns that predominant types of mathematization induce a shift of attention away from the key concepts of Austrian economics. Taking this shift to the extreme, predominant modes of mathem…Read more
  •  2
    Writing a captivating book about a bureaucrat and his statistical modelling techniques is impossible? Erwin Dekker’s biography of Jan Tinbergen proves otherwise. As he has done before, Dekker tells the history of economic thought and methodology as part and parcel of general intellectual and cultural history. Nevertheless, he never downplays or neglects the analysis of inner-scientific problem situations. Drawing on rich archival material and conversations with Tinbergen’s family, students, and …Read more
  •  6
    Writing a captivating book about a bureaucrat and his statistical modelling techniques is impossible? Erwin Dekker’s biography of Jan Tinbergen proves otherwise. As he has done before, Dekker tells the history of economic thought and methodology as part and parcel of general intellectual and cultural history. Nevertheless, he never downplays or neglects the analysis of inner-scientific problem situations. Drawing on rich archival material and conversations with Tinbergen’s family, students, and …Read more
  •  16
    Otto Neurath’s Scientific Utopianism Revisited-A Refined Model for Utopias in Thought Experiments
    Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 54 (2): 233-258. 2023.
    Otto Neurath’s empiricist methodology of economics and his contributions to political economy have gained increasing attention in recent years. We connect this research with contemporary debates regarding the epistemological status of thought experiments by reconstructing Neurath’s utopias as linchpins of thought experiments. In our three reconstructed examples of different uses of utopias/dystopias in thought experiments we employ a reformulation of Häggqvist’s model for thought experiments and…Read more
  •  216
    Otto Neurath's Scientific Utopianism Revisited - A Refined Model for Utopias in Thought Experiments
    Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie (2): 1-26. 2023.
    Otto Neurath’s empiricist methodology of economics and his contributions to politi- cal economy have gained increasing attention in recent years. We connect this research with contemporary debates regarding the epistemological status of thought experiments by reconstructing Neurath’s utopias as linchpins of thought experiments. In our three reconstructed examples of different uses of utopias/dystopias in thought experiments we employ a reformulation of Häggqvist’s model for thought experiments a…Read more
  •  14
    Carl Mengers Grundsätze der Volkswirthschaftslehre erscheinen 1871 und markieren die Geburtsstunde der Österreichischen Schule der Nationalökonomie. 150 Jahre später kennen mehr Menschen in mehr Ländern die Österreichische Schule als je zuvor. Carl Menger, Ludwig Mises und Friedrich Hayek werden verteufelt oder wie Popstars verehrt. Ihre Köpfe zieren Poster und T-Shirts in aller Welt. Die Wurzeln der heutigen Neo-Austrian School liegen aber in Wien, wo zwischen 1871 und 1934 Wissenschaft, Philos…Read more
  •  1
    Austrian economist Ludwig Mises’s central role in the socialist calculation debates has been consensually acknowledged since the early 1920s. Yet, only recently Nemeth, O’Neill, Uebel, and others have drawn particular attention to Mises’s encounter with logical empiricist Otto Neurath. Despite several surprising agreements, Neurath and Mises certainly provide different answers to the questions “what is meant by rational economic theory” (Neurath) and whether “socialism is the abolition of ration…Read more
  •  6
    Review of King, J.E., The Alternative Austrian Economics. A Brief History (review)
    Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 25 (1). 2022.
  • Philosophy of Austrian Economics
    In Julian Reiss & Conrad Heilmann (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Economics, Routledge. pp. 169-185. 2021.
    Carl Menger’s Principles of Economics published in 1871 is usually regarded as the founding document of the Austrian School of economics. Many of the School’s prominent representatives, including Friedrich Wieser, Eugen Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig Mises, Hans Mayer, Friedrich August Hayek, Fritz Machlup, Oskar Morgenstern, and Gottfried Haberler, as well as Israel Kirzner, Ludwig Lachmann, Murray Rothbard, and Don Lavoie, advanced and modified Menger’s research program in sometimes conflicting ways. Yet…Read more
  •  16
    Philosophy of Austrian Economics - Extended Cut
    Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University Working Paper Series. 2021.
    Carl Menger’s Principles of Economics, published in 1871, is usually regarded as the founding document of the Austrian School of economics. Many of the School’s prominent representatives, including Friedrich Wieser, Eugen Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig Mises, Hans Mayer, Friedrich August Hayek, Fritz Machlup, Oskar Morgenstern, and Gottfried Haberler, as well as Israel Kirzner, Ludwig Lachmann, Murray Rothbard, Don Lavoie, and Peter Boettke, advanced and modified Menger’s research program in sometimes conf…Read more
  •  5
    Viennese Late Enlightenment and the Early Socialist Calculation Debates: Rationalities and Their Limits
    Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University Working Paper Series. 2021.
    Austrian economist Ludwig Mises’s central role in the socialist calculation debates has been consensually acknowledged since the early 1920s. Yet, only recently, Nemeth, O’Neill, Uebel, and others have drawn particular attention to Mises’s pertinent encounter with one of the most colorful characters of “Red Vienna”: logical empiricist and “skeptic utopist” Otto Neurath. Despite several surprising agreements, Neurath and Mises certainly provide different answers to the questions “what is meant by…Read more
  •  2
    Sprachgeist and Realisticness: The Troubled Relationship Between (Austrian) Economics and Mathematics Revisited
    Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University Working Paper Series. 2021.
    In recent academic and to some extent public debates, mainstream economics has been accused of excessive mathematization. The rejection of mathematical and other formal methods is often cited as a crucial trait of Austrian economics. Based on a systematic discussion of potential benefits and potential drawbacks of formalization in economics, the paper concludes that - contrary to the received view - the most prominent representatives of Austrian economists including Carl Menger, Ludwig Mises, an…Read more
  •  2
    Friedrich Wieser
    In Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815- 1950. Band XVI, Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. pp. 193-194. 2020.
  •  22
    Logical empiricism and the Austrian School of economics are two of the internationally most influential intellectual movements with Viennese roots. By and large independently of each other, both have been subject to detailed historical and philosophical investigations for the last two dec-ades. However, in spite of numerous connections and interactions be-tween the two groups, their relationship has captured surprisingly sparse attention. My dissertation focuses on the many-facete…Read more
  • Introduction to the new edition
    with Rahim Taghizadegan
    In Rahim Taghizadegan & Huw Rhys James (eds.), Felix Kaufmann’s Songs of the Mises-Kreis. Wiener Lieder zur Philosophie und Ökonomie, . pp. 11-16. 2019.
    0 [] 1 Ludwig von Mises 2 The Miseskreis 3 Felix Kaufmann 4 Editing of the Miseskreis songs
  • Einleitung zur Neuausgabe
    with Rahim Taghizadegan
    In Rahim Taghizadegan & Huw Rhys James (eds.), Felix Kaufmann’s Songs of the Mises-Kreis. Wiener Lieder zur Philosophie und Ökonomie, . pp. 17-22. 2019.
    0 [] 1 Ludwig von Mises 2 Der Miseskreis 3 Felix Kaufmann 4 Redaktion der Miseskreis-Lieder
  •  43
    Current debates between behavioural and orthodox economists indicate that the role and epistemological status of first principles is a particularly pressing problem in economics. As an alleged paragon of extreme apriorism, the methodology of Austrian economics in Mises’ tradition is often dismissed as untenable in the light of modern philosophy. In particular, the defence of the so-called fundamental axiom of praxeology—“Man acts.”—by means of pure intuition is almost unanimously rejected. Howev…Read more
  • Alex has written an excellent thesis in the area of computable model theory. The latter is a subject that nicely combines model-theoretic ideas with delicate recursiontheoretic constructions. The results demand good knowledge of both fields. In his thesis, Alex begins by reviewing the essential model-theoretic facts, especially the Baldwin-Lachlan result about uncountably categorical theories. This he follows with a brief discussion of recursion theory, including mention of the priority method.…Read more
  • Felix Kaufmann – “A Reasonable Positivist”?
    In Friedrich Stadler (ed.), Ernst Mach – Life, Work, Influence, Springer Verlag. pp. 709-719. 2019.
    1 A Versatile Mediator 2 Theory and Method in the Social Sciences 3 Kaufmann and Logical Empiricism 4 Kaufmann and the Liberal Wing of Viennese Late Enlightenment 5 Kaufmann and Popper 6 Kaufmann in the United States 7 Rediscovering Kaufmann's Methodology
  •  1
    Was man aus Einflüssen machen kann - Hans Hahns Adaptierung von Russells Logizimus und Wittgensteins Nominalismus
    Contributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society 26 138-140. 2018.
    Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags beleuchten wir, wie Hans Hahn die Einflüsse Russells und Wittgensteins adaptiert, um seine individuelle Variante von Logizismus zu entwickeln. Von Bedeutung ist in diesem Zusammenhang Hahns unterschätzte Vorreiterrolle in der Entwicklung des logischen Toleranzprinzips und des logischen Pluralismus, also der Loslösung von der Vorstellung einer einzigen „korrekten“ Logik. Die detaillierten Arbeiten Uebels (2007, 2009) zur Entwicklung des logischen Pluralismus im Wiener Kr…Read more
  •  8
    This book presents a concise introduction to the epistemology and methodology of the Austrian School of economics as defended by Ludwig von Mises. The author provides an innovative interpretation of Mises’ arguments in favour of the a priori truth of praxeology, the received view of which contributed to the academic marginalisation of the Austrian School. The study puts forward a unique argument that Mises – perhaps unintentionally – defends a form of conventionalism. Chapters in the book includ…Read more
  • In the first part of this paper I review the two most recent biographies on Otto Neurath and Ludwig von Mises as well as the scarce literature on the relations between their lives and ideas. Recent publications by Nemeth, O’Neill, and Uebel reflect growing interest in the connections between these two main proponents of Logical Empiricism and the Austrian School of Economics respectively, but are mainly focused on the so-called socialist calculation debates. In the second part I propose that add…Read more