Philipp Frank's civic and intellectual life in Prague

investments in loyalty

Veronika Hofer

pp. 51-72

in: Radek Schuster (ed), The Vienna circle in Czechoslovakia, Berlin, Springer, 2020

Abstract

Philipp Frank's life and work in the social and intellectual context of Prague is represented in his fight for Mach's legacy. In this, he faced harsh opposition from Christian von Ehrenfels of the Prague School and a follower of Franz Brentano, and who acted as the chief antagonist of Frank and Anton Lampa in 1914. This set the stage for the young Philipp Frank to put Mach's legacy to the test, which led him to develop a particular interpretation of it which formed the basis for his lifelong interest in analyzing non-cognitive factors in both theories and scientific orientation. His social and intellectual life can be understood together through the concept of loyalty, which is an excellent tool to analyze his careful relativism as opposed to any sort of absolutism, that echoes in his private, in his academic and in his philosophical life.

Cited authors

Brentano Franz

Frank Philipp