This is one of the clearest expositions in laypersons terms of Einstein's theory of relativity and its paradigm-shifting implications for philosophy and common-sense notions of reality. Moritz Schlick, the influential German philosopher and leader of the positivist school of philosophy known as the Vienna Circle, wrote this short work in 1919 specifically to introduce readers unfamiliar with Einstein's theories to the profound importance of the physicist's immense contributions. Einstein himself reviewed Schlick's work before publication and is thanked in the preface for 'giving me many useful hints'. With a talent for illustrative analogies and a concise, lucid style of presentation, Schlick explains both the special and the general theories of relativity. Beginning with the older Newtonian view of space, time, and the laws governing matter, the author proceeds to show how Einstein's theories solved certain problems inherent in the old view and provided a radical new conception of reality. Since their original publication, numerous experiments have confirmed Einstein's ideas.;Thus, Schlick's work continues to be a valuable and highly accessible explication of one of science's most enduring achievements.

INTRODUCTION The present volume unites contributions by the leading figure of the Vienna Circle and by two of his closest assoCiates, contributions that deal with an area of thought represented, indeed, in this Collection but certainly not the central one in the common picture ofthe Circle's activities. It is no accident that an interest in ethics and the philosophy of action was particularly marked in what Neurath was apt to call the right wing of the Circle. For them, as for Wittgenstein (the respected mentorofSchlickandWaismanninparticular), theadvancetobehoped for in philosophy consisted not solely in freeing natural science from a confused sense of dependence on speculative metaphysics but also in seeingthatotherareasoflanguageandaction hadto bethoughtaboutin theirownterms, whichwereneitherthoseofnaturalsciencenorthoseof philosophy as traditionally conceived. The scepticismofSchlick about theprogrammeofUnifiedSciencewaswellknown: EinheizwissenschaJt he called it, as it might be 'boozified science'. And in sober truth the programme sometimes masked a left-wing set of values taken (surely illogically) for granted, though the membersofthe Circle entertained a wide range ofpolitical views. Schlick's own contribution to the present volume is a section from thenotesforoneofhisfinal lectureseries, forsightofwhich wewarmly thanktheonlysurvivingcontributortoourvolume, DrJosephSchachter: Schlick'sgrandsonDra. M. H. vandeVeldehaskindlyconsentedtotheir publication. This section poses the problem we have outlined: there are questionsandaneedforclarificationinethics, butthesenomoredemand a metaphysical solution than does a similar situation in epistemology. Here, as in his earlier Problems of Ethics, l Schlick sets his face against thewholeprocess, mostobviousin Kant, ofmakingtheconceptofvalue absolute. One might say that for Schlick there is no unhypothetical imperative.

PROBLEMS OF ETHICS PRENTICE-HAL4 PHILOSOPHY SERIES ARTHUR E. Mu ftHY, PH. D., EDITOR PERCEPTION AND AESTHETIC VALUE, by Harold Newton Lee FORMAL LOGIC, by Albert A. Bennett and Charles A. Bayhs PROBLEMS OF ETHICS, by Moritz Schlick. Translated by David Rynin PROBLEMS OF ETHICS BY MORITZ SCHLICK AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY DAVID RYNIN, PH. D NEW YORK 1939 PRENTICE-HALL, INC. COPYRIGHT, 1939, BJ PRENTICE-HALL, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM, BY MIMEOGRAPH OR ANY OTHER MEANS, WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRIT ING FROM THE PUBLISHERS. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Foreword THE appearance, in English translation, of Professor Moritz Schlicks Fragen dcr JLthi is timely and welcome.-Professor Schlick was the leader of the vigorous and influential Vienna Circle, a group of scientists, logicians, and philosophers who attacked in a fresh way the persistent problem as to what the nature and the significant function of philosophical reflection really is. These thinkers, in general, carry on the traditions of empiricism and positivism, which they have reformulated in the light of certain views arising from a logical analysis of language and sym bols. Accordingly, the position which these writers represent sometimes goes by the name of logical positivism. The application of the methods and re sults of this type of analysis to some of the traditional problems of ethics supplies the substance of this book. It will bring home to the mind of the thoughtful reader the pressing question as to the real nature of ethical problems indeed of all those problems which have to do with the appraisal of human values. These problems are crucial forus now, both in theory and in practice. To have so unambiguous and clear a state vi FOREWORD ment of these problems as they appear within the per spective of modern positivism is very much worth while. GEORGE P. ADAMS The University of California Translators Note ALTHOUGH this authorized translation of Moritz Schlicks Fragen der Ethi was read and ap proved, and in part revised, by the author before his untimely and tragic death, I accept full responsibility for whatever shortcomings may yet characterize it. I wish to thank my friends for their assistance in render ing the more difficult passages into readable English, DAVID RYNIN Vll Contents PAGE FOREWORD, BY GEORGE P. ADAMS v TRANSLATORS NOTE vii PREFACE xin CHAPTER L WHAT Is THE AIM OF ETHICS .... i 1. Ethics Seeks Nothing But Knowledge i 2. The Subject-matter of Ethics .... 2 3. On the Definition of Good .... 5 4. Is the Good Indefinable 8 5. The Formal Characteristic of the Good 10 6. Material Characteristics II 7. Moral Norms and Moral Principles . 14 Ethics as a Normative Science . . 17 9. Ethics as Factual Science 20 10. Ethics Seeks Causal Explanation . . 22 11. Formulation of the Fundamental Ques tion 26 12. The Method of Ethics Is Psychological . 28 i II. WHAT ARE THE MOTIVES OF HUMAN CON DUCT 31 1. Activity and Conduct 31 2. The Nature of the Act of Will ... 33 ix CONTENTS HAPTER PAGE II. WHAT ARE THE MOTIVES OF HUMAN CON DUCT Continued 3. The Concept of Will 35 4. The Law of Motivation 36 5. In Proof of the Law of Motivation . . 41 6. The Law of Motivation in the Case of Sacrifice 42 7. The Law of Motivation in the Case of Heroism 45 8. Rebuttal of False Objections and Ex planations 47 9. The Law of Motivation Is Not Tautologous 51 10. The Law Expresses Significant Knowl edge 53 III. WHAT Is EGOISM 56 1. Egoism Is Immoral ...... 56 2. Egoism and Personal Welfare ... 57 3. The Nature of Impulse 59 4. Is Egoism an Impulse 62 5. The Possibility of Imagining Personal States 65 6. Egoism Is Not the Will to Pleasure . . 69 7. Egoism and the Impulse of Self-Preser vation 72 8. Egoism as Inconsiderateness .... 73 9. Moral Condemnation of Egoism . . 76 IV. WHAT Is THE MEANING OF MORAL . . 79 i. The Morality of Demand and the Mo rality of Desire 79

INTRODUCTION The present volume unites contributions by the leading figure of the Vienna Circle and by two of his closest assoCiates, contributions that deal with an area of thought represented, indeed, in this Collection but certainly not the central one in the common picture ofthe Circle's activities. It is no accident that an interest in ethics and the philosophy of action was particularly marked in what Neurath was apt to call the right wing of the Circle. For them, as for Wittgenstein (the respected mentorofSchlickandWaismanninparticular), theadvancetobehoped for in philosophy consisted not solely in freeing natural science from a confused sense of dependence on speculative metaphysics but also in seeingthatotherareasoflanguageandaction hadto bethoughtaboutin theirownterms, whichwereneitherthoseofnaturalsciencenorthoseof philosophy as traditionally conceived. The scepticismofSchlick about theprogrammeofUnifiedSciencewaswellknown: EinheizwissenschaJt he called it, as it might be 'boozified science'. And in sober truth the programme sometimes masked a left-wing set of values taken (surely illogically) for granted, though the membersofthe Circle entertained a wide range ofpolitical views. Schlick's own contribution to the present volume is a section from thenotesforoneofhisfinal lectureseries, forsightofwhich wewarmly thanktheonlysurvivingcontributortoourvolume, DrJosephSchachter: Schlick'sgrandsonDra. M. H. vandeVeldehaskindlyconsentedtotheir publication. This section poses the problem we have outlined: there are questionsandaneedforclarificationinethics, butthesenomoredemand a metaphysical solution than does a similar situation in epistemology. Here, as in his earlier Problems of Ethics, l Schlick sets his face against thewholeprocess, mostobviousin Kant, ofmakingtheconceptofvalue absolute. One might say that for Schlick there is no unhypothetical imperative.

First published in Germany in 1918, this acutely reasoned treatise attacks many of philosophys contemporary sacred cows, including the concept of metaphysics and Kants arguments for synthetic a priori knowledge. The book expounds most of the doctrines that would later be identified with the classical period of the Vienna Circle. Unlike many of his peers, Schlick displays a detailed and sensitive knowledge of the traditions he criticizes, displayed here in the chief work of this pioneering Viennese philosopher.

Die Allgemeine Erkenntnislehre gilt als das Hauptwerk von Moritz Schlick. Hierin entwickelt Schlick in Auseinandersetzung mit zeitgenossischen Positionen seine einflussreichen Gedanken zum Wesen der Erkenntnis, zum Verhaltnis zwischen Psychologie und Logik, zum Leib-Seele-Problem und zum erkenntnistheoretischen Realismusstreit. Der Text wurde wahrend der fruhen Rostocker Jahre Schlicks, von 1911 bis 1916, verfasst. Die Allgemeine Erkenntnislehre ist ein Meilenstein der wissenschaftlichen Philosophie und grundlegend fur die spatere Entwicklung des Wiener Kreises des Logischen Empirismus. "

Seit beinahe einem Jahrhundert sind Mathematiker und Logiker mit Erfolg bemuht, aus der Logik eine strenge Wissen. schaft zu machen. Dieses Ziel ist in einem gewissen Sinn erreicht worden: man hat gelernt, in der Logistik mit Symbolen und Formeln ahnlich denen der Mathematik in strenger Weise zu operieren. Aber ein logisches Buch muss ausser den Formeln auch Zwischentext enthalten, der mit Hilfe der gewohnlichen Wort. sprache uber die Formeln spricht und ihren Zusammenhang klar macht. Dieser Zwischentext lasst oft an Klarheit und Exakt. heit manches zu wunschen ubrig. In den letzten Jahren nun hat sich bei den Logikern verschiedener Richtungen immer mehr die Einsicht entwickelt, dass dieser Zwischentext das Wesentliche an der Logik ist und dass es darauf ankommt, fur diese Satze uber Satze eine exakte Methode zu entwickeln. Dieses Buch will die systematische Darstellung einer solchen Methode, der "logischen Syntax," geben (nahere Erlauterungen in der Einleitung, 1, 2). In unserem "Wiener Kreis" und in manchen ahnlich gerich. teten Gruppen (in Polen, Frankreich, England, USA. und ver. einzelt sogar in Deutschland) hat sich gegenwartig die Auffassung immer deutlicher herausgebildet, dass die traditionelle meta. physische Philosophie keinen Anspruch auf Wissenschaftlichkeit machen kann. Was an der Arbeit des Philosophen wissenschaft. lich haltbar ist, besteht - soweit es nicht empirische Fragen betrifft, die der Realwissenschaft zuzuweisen sind - in logischer Analyse. Die logische Syntax will nun ein Begriffsgebaude, eine Sprache liefern, mit deren Hilfe die Ergebnisse logischer Analyse exakt formulierbar sind. Philosophie wird durch Wissen."

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Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfangen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen fur die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfugung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden mussen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfangen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen fur die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfugung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden mussen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfangen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen fur die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfugung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden mussen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.

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