Comments (0)Fringe Center
September 25, 2009Abe Novick
Special to the Jewish Times
In September of 1929, as a gathering storm hovered in Europe and a worldwide economic crisis closed in fast, an inlet of intellectual debate based on logic and facts was uniting in Vienna, Austria.
The group, the Vienna Circle, was made up of philosophers, mathematicians and scientists. Many were Jews. Perhaps the most famous member, Ludwig Wittgenstein, was raised Catholic but of Jewish heritage.
His Tractatus had enormous influence, emphasizing how the meaning of a proposition is identical with the method of verifying it. The VC’s aim was to infuse a scientific approach into philosophy using modern logic.
As expected, there was widespread disagreement on many issues among this array of thinkers. Yet their manifesto, largely authored by Neurath exactly 80 years ago, had two essential features: knowledge came from experience; and logical analysis, and mainly symbolic logic,was the method to determine clarity of assertions. Such fact-based thinking is needed today.
Over the summer, we witnessed an unprecedented debasement of both logic and empirical fact-based knowledge. In town meetings speakers were shouted down, paranoid arguments claiming President Obama is a fascist or simply not American, and an overall lack of civil discourse culminating in Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) crescendo, “You Lie!”
Writing inThe New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg laments, “This sort of lunatic paranoia — touched with populism, nativism, racism, and anti-intellectualism — has long been a feature of the fringe, especially during times of economic bewilderment.”
Frightening now is that it no longer rests on the fringe, but is in mainstream. And Mr. Hertzberg’s description could have been made of Europe in 1929. And yes, while that was long ago, human nature’s remarkable ability to forget is timeless.
To our credit, we put enormous emphasis on learning facts as evidenced by the propagation of museums dedicated to learning. But just as important as learning facts, and they are vital, is that teaching the principles of logic is equally critical.
How is civil discourse to be instilled without the framework? It’s often not until college that a student is introduced to the word “syllogism.” How many children today are taught logic’s fundamental rules?
While holding fast to their thinking, the VC’s ultimate disbandment came with the crush of indisputable fascism. The Nazis took power in Germany and irrationalism dominated public discourse; many VC members left for America to teach in universities.
VC founder, Moritz Schlick, who was not Jewish, remained in Austria only to be killed by a Nazi sympathizer who thought he was a Jew.
Far from being snuffed, debate has become a cacophony of shouts emanating from ever-growing numbers. In turn, weeding through what is fact and deciphering it from falsehood has become a full-time profession for organizations like CAMERA, which is dedicated to providing analysis within the Babel-like world of mangled verbiage.
Though the lost world of the Vienna Circle is another remnant of the shattered past, their writings, influence and need for precision and clarity are essential and crucial today.
While their circle may seem like a distant orb, their impact resonates.
Abe Novick writes monthly for the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES.