Science and socialism
Otto Neurath as a political writer (1919–1932)
pp. 67-87
in: Jordi Cat, Adam Tuboly (eds), Neurath reconsidered, Berlin, Springer, 2019Abstrakt
In the case of Otto Neurath, there was always a close relationship between science and politics. It is worth noting, however, that he also intervened in politics of the day. The essay focuses on Neurath's time in Revolutionary Bavaria and Red Vienna and analyzes his articles in two newspapers in the interwar period: the German periodical Economy and Order of Life (a supplement of the Art Guardian) and the Austrian socialist daily Workers" Newspaper. The examination starts when Neurath definitely became a socialist and member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) after the war in Germany and ends shortly before his forced migration from Austria in 1934. The two series of articles differed in some respects. While in Economy and Order of Life Neurath focused only socialization, he addressed a number of different topics in the Arbeiter-Zeitung (AZ – Workers" Newspaper) ranging from guild socialism over housing, architecture and settlement to education and the scientific world-conception. The question of his role and his self-image was a common theme in many of these articles. Beyond that, however, there were even approaches to closely related themes that he developed more precisely only in his later life: the question of experts, citizens, and democracy.
