Vienna Circle facts for kids
The Vienna Circle (which means "der Wiener Kreis" in German) was a group of smart thinkers called philosophers. They started meeting around the University of Vienna in 1922.
Many famous philosophers were part of this group. Some of them included Rudolf Carnap, Kurt Gödel, Hans Hahn, Otto Neurath, and Moritz Schlick, who was their chairman.
Most of the group followed a way of thinking known as logical positivism. This idea focused on using logic and science to understand the world. They believed that statements could only be meaningful if they could be proven true or false through observation or logical reasoning.
A book written in 1921 by Ludwig Wittgenstein, called Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, was very important to the group's ideas. However, Wittgenstein himself felt that the group didn't quite understand his work correctly. Sometimes, during their meetings, he would quietly read poetry to himself!
The Vienna Circle stopped meeting when the Nazi party came to power in Germany in 1933. Because of this, many of its members moved to the USA. There, they became teachers at different universities.
The ideas of the Vienna Circle had a very big impact on philosophy in the 20th century.
