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" Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium / "
by Karl Menger ; edited by Louise Golland, Brian McGuinness, and Abe Sklar
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BL
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| Record Number
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659666
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dltt
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| Main Entry
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Menger, Karl,1902-1985
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| Title & Author
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Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium /\ by Karl Menger ; edited by Louise Golland, Brian McGuinness, and Abe Sklar
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| Publication Statement
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Dordrecht ;Boston :: Kluwer Academic Publishers,, ©1994
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| Series Statement
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Vienna Circle collection ;; v. 20
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| Page. NO
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xxv, 242 pages :: illustrations ;; 23 cm
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| ISBN
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079232711X
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: 9780792327110
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: 0792328736
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: 9780792328735
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| Notes
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Includes index
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| Bibliographies/Indexes
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Includes bibliographical references and index
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| Contents
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Karl Menger's Contribution to the Social Sciences -- A Note by Lionello Punzo -- I. The Historical Background -- II. The Cultural Background -- III. The Philosophical Atmosphere in Vienna -- IV. Why the Circle invited me. The Theory of Curves and Dimension Theory -- V. Vignettes of the Members of the Circle in 1927 -- VI. Reminiscences of the Wittgenstein Family -- VII. Ludwig Wittgenstein's Austrian Dictionary -- VIII. Wittgenstein's Tractatus and the Early Circle -- IX. On the Communication of Metaphysical Ideas. Wittgenstein's Ontology -- X. Wittgenstein, Brower, and the Circle -- XI. Discussions in the Circle 1927-30 -- XII. Poland and the Vienna Circle -- XIII. The United States 1930-31 -- XIV. Discussions in the Circle 1931-34 -- XV. The Circle on Ethics -- XVI. Moritz Schlick's Final Years -- Memories of Kurt Godel
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| Abstract
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Karl Menger (1902-1985), a pure mathematician of distinction, also took an active interest in both philosophy and economics. In this memoir, which he was composing at the time of his death, he relates how all these subjects developed and flourished against the Viennese background (itself described in depth and with affection), and did so despite the political developments of the 20's and 30's, which depressed but did not silence him. He himself continued his work in the United States. The memoirs describe his membership of the Vienna Circle (the scientifically minded philosophers that gathered round Moritz Schlick) for whom he was an invaluable intermediary, bringing them into contact with Brouwer's intuitionism, with the work of the Polish logicians, especially that of Tarski, but more generally with rigorous mathematical thinking
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Indeed the other Viennese group described here is the Mathematical Colloquium, founded by himself, whose Proceedings (still read) show it to have been a power-house of ideas. There are also valuable chapters on philosophy and mathematics in the Poland of the 20's and 30's and the U.S. of the 30's and 40's. The memoirs devote particular attention to Wittgenstein (with whose family Menger was independently acquainted) and to Godel, whom he was instrumental in bringing to America. The genesis of Menger's own writings on philosophy is also described and the work abounds in mathematical examples lucidly applied to that subject. This volume (which can now be put alongside the two by Menger already published in the Vienna Circle Collection) gives an unequalled impression of the fruitful interdisciplinarity of the tradition to which he partly belonged and partly created. It testifies both to Menger's power to inspire and to the critical eye he always turned on even the philosophers he most approved of
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A brief account of his life is given in an introduction by the Editors (all of whom knew him personally) and his important contribution to the social sciences, only touched on in the text, is elucidated by Professor Lionello Punzo
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| Subject
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Menger, Karl,1902-1985
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| Subject
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Mathematics-- Austria-- Vienna-- History-- 20th century
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| Subject
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Vienna circle
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| Dewey Classification
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510/.9436/1309042
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| LC Classification
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QA27.A9M46 1994
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| Added Entry
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Golland, Louise,1942-
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McGuinness, Brian
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Sklar, A., (Abe)
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