Why am I passionate about this?
I first learned about life in 1930s Vienna from my grandfather’s memoir: Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium. I was fascinated by the time and place and began to read more about the era, which ultimately served as a setting for my forthcoming novel, The Expert of Subtle Revisions.
Kirsten's book list on love, loss, and logic in 1930s Vienna
Why did Kirsten love this book?
When David Edmunds writes, “We live during a time where phrases like post-truth and fake news are bandied around” and “empiricism is more relevant than ever,” he is introducing a fascinating and beautifully written book about… Vienna in the 1930s!
Although the book’s focus is the Vienna Circle and logical empiricism, Edmunds also does a wonderful job painting the times in which the Circle both flourished and fell, capturing the rising political extremism.
1 author picked The Murder of Professor Schlick as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
From the author of Wittgenstein's Poker and Would You Kill the Fat Man?, the story of an extraordinary group of philosophers during a dark chapter in Europe's history
On June 22, 1936, the philosopher Moritz Schlick was on his way to deliver a lecture at the University of Vienna when Johann Nelboeck, a deranged former student of Schlick's, shot him dead on the university steps. Some Austrian newspapers defended the madman, while Nelboeck himself argued in court that his onetime teacher had promoted a treacherous Jewish philosophy. David Edmonds traces the rise and fall of the Vienna Circle-an influential group…