Money and Philosophy in Vienna: Otto Neurath and Ludwig Wittgenstein

I identify and discuss cross-disciplinary, intellectual, social, and personal connections as they relate to the philosophical contributions of two Viennese figures central to the development of logical empiricism and the Vienna Circle in the 1920s: Otto Neurath (1882–1945) and Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). Wittgenstein’s attention to money in his philosophical work appears in the later, post-Tractatus period. His later perspective on philosophy and on money is social, but, I argue, the focus is individualistic. Through his attention to individual linguistic and monetary behaviors as social practices, Wittgenstein’s examples play a demonstrative role in philosophical argument, as illustration and evidence. By contrast, Neurath’s interest in money and its indirect relevance to philosophical considerations are informed by social goals and considerations of economic theory, application, methodology, and disciplinary identity. I also note the rhetorical and conceptual connecting role of talk of control, boats, and Robinson Crusoe.