Deutsche Version

Visualizing philosophy is a challenge for multi-media science communication, but we are fortunate to be able to use Peter Weibel´s installations to present a rich store of images, documents and texts.

 

A central part of our exhibition will be devoted to the history of the racist and political persecution of intellectuals and scholars, leading to the exodus of the Vienna Circle and the brutal suppression of Vienna’s ‘Golden Autumn’.

Many of the central topics of the Vienna Circle are still with us. There is  a direct line leading from the abstract investigations of Carnap and Gödel on symbolic logic to programmed computers and the algorithms governing our life today.

 

The ‘Vienna pictorial statistics’ of Neurath led to the pictograms that  continue to direct  streams of passengers all over the world. The Circle also had close contacts with eminent writers and architects. There was  a tight connection with quantum physics and with Albert Einstein (Schlick was Einstein’s prophet and ‘Hausphilosoph’, and Gödel became Einstein’s best friend).

 

During the first half of the last century, Vienna’s role in philosophy was crucial. In the constellation of Mach, Boltzmann, Wittgenstein, Gödel and Popper, the Vienna Circle was a leading player. Its history includes murder and suicide, persecution and nervous breakdowns, and  is fuelled by heated controversies, ranging from the debate between Mach and Boltzmann about the reality of atoms to the fierce clash between Popper and Wittgenstein about whether philosophical problems exist at all.

 

The exhibition will deal with the extraordinary intellectual and cultural feats that led to the emergence of the Vienna Circle. At the same time, it will also take a closer look at the terrible ravages of political fanaticism and anti-semitism, and the ruthless destruction of a pinnacle of exact thinking.  Last not least, the exhibition will  reveal the international impact that the Vienna Circle would have.

Honorary committee:

CARL DJERASSI †

MARTIN KARPLUS

WALTER KOHN

HELGA NOWOTNY

PETER PULZER

EDWARD TIMMS

ERIKA WEINZIERL†

ANTON ZEILINGER

The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication,

University of Reading

Architecture:

 

Digital Media:

Scientific Collaborator:

Christoph Limbeck-Lilienau

Graphics:

Bea Laufersweiler

 

Impressum