Ethics and Morality in the Vienna Circle

Anne Siegetsleitner (Innsbruck) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "Ethics and Morality in the Vienna Circle". Abstract: In my talk I will present key aspects of a long-overdue revision of the prevailing view on the role and conception of ethics and morality in the Vienna Circle. This view is rejected as being too partial and undifferentiated. Not all members supported the standard view of logical empiricist ethics, which is held to be characterized by the acceptance of descriptive empirical research, the rejection of normative and substantial ethics as well as an extreme non-cognitivsm. Some members applied formal methods, some did not. However, most members shared an enlightened and humanistic version of morality and ethics. I will show why these findings are still relevant today, not least for mathematical philosophers.