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Thinker · 1882–1936 CE

Moritz Schlick

Moritz Schlick founded and led the Vienna Circle while developing empiricist accounts of knowledge, meaning, ethics, and the philosophical interpretation of relativity.

Intellectual setting

At Vienna from 1922, Schlick convened the discussion group that became the Vienna Circle and brought together Hahn, Neurath, Carnap, and others.

Key ideas

Meaning and verification

Philosophical clarification asks how claims connect to possible experience and scientific inquiry.

Foundations debate

His account of affirmations and truth differed from Neurath’s coherentism and Carnap’s later framework approach.

Legacy

He is remembered as the Circle’s founder and as a distinctive philosopher whose views cannot be reduced to a simple verificationist slogan.