Friedrich Waismann

Who was Friedrich Waismann?

Friedrich Waismann was an Austrian mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. He is best known for being a member of the Vienna Circle and one of the key theorists in logical positivism. He was of Jewish descent - his father being Russian, his mother German. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna and became an assistant to Moritz Schlick, a collaboration that guided the trajectory of Waismenn's subsequent intellectual work and career.

Waismann developed the concept of linguistic open texture, which describes the failure of natural languages to determine future usage, particularly the ability of predicates to permit the construction of borderline cases.

Schlick, professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna, was shot on the steps of the university by Johann Nelböck, one of his former students, on 22 June 1936. Schlick was among the first to explore the philosophical implications of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and also had a personal relationship with the scientist, having played with him in a chamber group after meeting him in Germany. The fact that eight of the 14 members of the Wiener Kreis school of philosophy were Jews, along with its general liberal ideology and modern, anti-speculative philosophy, secured its place in the category of the “Jewish”. In addition, his visible support of Jewish doctoral students such as Herbert Feigl, who was not able to gain a position as Privatdozent in Vienna after gaining his doctorate in 1928 due to antisemitism, and Waismann, whose position as librarian was terminated in January 1936 for the same reason, also fostered the belief that Schlick, too, was Jewish. By the time he was appointed Chair of Philosophy at the University of Vienna in 1922, the use of antisemitism as a way to express opposition to the philosophical ideals of those like Schlick was already in vogue. A group of his academic opponents unsuccessfully attempted to block his university appointment. Nelböck was tried and sentenced, but the event became a distorted cause célèbre around which crystallized the growing nationalist and anti-Jewish sentiments in the city. After the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938 the assassin was released on license after serving 2 years of a 10 year sentence.