(Federal University of Santa Catarina UFSC, Brazil)
Přednáška proběhne v anglickém jazyce.
ABSTRAKT: This talk discusses Otto Neurath’s philosophy of the social sciences, his scientific utopianism, in the context of cultural modernism. Recent scholarship presents Neurath and other Vienna Circle members in close relation to modernist cultural, artistic, and architectural movements of the interwar period, such as the Bauhaus, the Neue Sachlichkeit, the Austrian Werkbund and the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne). Neurath took part in the fourth meeting of the Congrès in 1933, but the cooperation failed completely amid controversies with other member of the group. This talk explores the stark contradiction between the scientific world-conception defended by Neurath and the Vienna Circle and the openly metaphysical world-view assumed by the architect Le Corbusier, one of the leading figures in CIAM. In this world-view Le Corbusier considers that science is an expression of a mystical world-order that establishes an aesthetic harmony in the universe. Neurath’s pluralist and fallibilist view of science and democracy is incompatible with Le Corbusier’s stance that influenced CIAM. The social sciences as Neurath regarded them cannot contribute to architecture and urban-planning oriented by Le Corbusier’s perspective. Hence Neurath can be regarded as a voice of criticism within modernism.