Otto Neurath Quotes on Politics
Otto Neurath was an Austrian sociologist, economist, and philosopher of science and one of the leading members of the Vienna Circle. This page collects quotes attributed to Otto Neurath on the topic of politics, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Otto Neurath:
“Statistics are the foundation of social science.”
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Attributed to Otto Neurath:
“Visual education makes knowledge accessible to all.”
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Attributed to Otto Neurath:
“Philosophy must be practiced as a public, cooperative activity.”
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“Otto Neurath (1921), "Spengler's Description of the World," as cited in: Nancy Cartwright et al. Otto Neurath: Philosophy Between Science and Politics, Cambridge University Press, 28 Apr. 2008 p. 191”
We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom. Where a beam is taken away a new one must at once be put there, and for this the rest of the ship is used as support. In this way, by using the old beams and driftwood the ship can be shaped entirely anew, but only by gradual reconstruction. -
“Science as a system of statements is always an object of discussion. Statements are to be compared with statements, and not with 'experience', or with 'the world', or with something else. All that meaningless doubling belongs to more or less subtle metaphysics and as such must be rejected. Every new statement is to be confronted with existing ones, already brought to a state of harmony between themselves. A statement will be considered correct if it can be joined to them.”
Otto Neurath (1931), "Soziologie im Physikalismus", in Erkenntnis , Vol. 2. p. 403; as cited in: Schaff (1962;84)