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Otto Neurath in Britain

Otto Neurath in Britain

Otto Neurath in Britain

Christopher Burke, University of Reading
Adam Tamas Tuboly, HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities
January 2025
Available
Hardback
9781009376297
£90.00
GBP
Hardback
USD
eBook

    Otto Neurath (1882–1945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist and political economist, and one of the most multi-faceted and creative thinkers in the Vienna Circle. Forced into exile by fascism, he was part of the intellectual exodus from Central Europe. After an adventurous escape to England and internment as an 'enemy alien', he enthusiastically adapted to British culture, working on documentary films and publications for the war effort using the Isotype method of visualization. He treasured the British habit of 'muddling through', and debated planning and economics with fellow Central European émigrés, Friedrich Hayek, Karl Mannheim and Karl Popper. Based on new archival research, this book explores a little-known period of Neurath's rich and fascinating life, weaving together biographical, historical, and philosophical strands that reflect the cross-cultural currents of twentieth-century intellectual history through the lens of Neurath's contribution.

    • Places Neurath in his twentieth-century context of philosophy and ideas
    • Explores a little-known section of Neurath's rich and fascinating life
    • Provides an integrated and contextualized examination of Neurath's multi-faceted work

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Christopher Burke's and Adam Tamas Tuboly's rich and detailed study of Otto Neurath's final years fills a great gap in our understanding of this remarkable philosopher, economist and educationalist.  They let us see Neurath working for Enlightenment ideals like informed self-determination and intersubjective accountability – and hoping to rebuild Europe after the Nazi catastrophe.' Thomas Uebel, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Manchester

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    Product details

    January 2025
    Hardback
    9781009376297
    338 pages
    232 × 159 × 25 mm
    0.64kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction
    • 1. Prelude
    • 2. From Vienna to the Hague
    • 3. Escape and internment
    • 4. Becoming 'British furniture'–adapting to life in England
    • 5. Logical empiricism in Britain
    • 6. The language problem
    • 7. Visual education
    • 8. On German culture and post-war re-education
    • 9. From socialist to democratic planning in context
    • 10. 'Sociologist of happiness'
    • Coda
    • Bibliography
    • Index.
      Authors
    • Christopher Burke , University of Reading

      Christopher Burke is a design historian and typographer in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading. He was co-curator of the exhibition 'Isotype: International Picture Language' (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2010) and co-editor of Otto Neurath's 'visual autobiography' From Hieroglyphics to Isotype.

    • Adam Tamas Tuboly , HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities

      Adam Tamas Tuboly is a researcher at the HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Philosophy, Budapest, and at the Department of Behavioural Sciences, Medical School, University of Pécs. He is the co-editor of Interpreting Carnap (with Alan Richardson Cambridge, 2024).