Victor Kraft (; 4 July 1880 – 3 January 1975) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He is best known for being a member of the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle () of logical empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, chaired by Moritz Sc ...

Early life and education

Kraft studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, geography and history at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. He participated in the events of the university's Philosophical Society, as well as with private circles (especially Oskar Ewald,

Otto Weininger Otto Weininger (; 3 April 1880 – 4 October 1903) was an Austrian philosopher who in 1903 published the book ''Geschlecht und Charakter'' (''Sex and Character''), which gained popularity after his suicide at the age of 23. Weininger had a stron ...

and

Othmar Spann Othmar Spann (1 October 1878 – 8 July 1950) was a conservative Austrian philosopher, sociologist and economist. His radical anti-liberal and anti-socialist views, based on early 19th century Romantic ideas expressed by Adam Müller et al. ...

). He received in 1903 his Ph.D. with a dissertation titled ''The Knowledge of the External World'' (''Die Erkenntnis der Außenwelt''). Then he moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

to continue his studies under

Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach ...

Wilhelm Dilthey Wilhelm Dilthey (; ; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, and hermeneutic philosopher, who held Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. As a polymathi ...

and

Carl Stumpf Carl Stumpf (; 21 April 1848 – 25 December 1936) was a German philosopher, psychologist and musicologist. He is noted for founding the Berlin School of experimental psychology. He studied with Franz Brentano at the University of Würzburg be ...

at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. Kraft started working in 1912 at the university's library, where he was a scientific civil servant ("

Beamter The German civil servants called ' (men, singular ', more commonly ') (women, singular ') have a privileged legal status compared to other German public employees (called '), who are generally subject to the same laws and regulations as employ ...

") until 1939. In 1914, he completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

under Adolf Stöhr with his book ''The Concept of World and the Concept of Knowledge'' (''Weltbegriff und Erkenntnisbegriff''). Kraft attend regularly the

until its dissolution, and at the same time was also a member of the Gomperz Circle and had contacts to the so-called periphery of the Vienna Circle (e.g.,

Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the ...

). Victor Kraft received the title of associate professor for theoretical philosophy in 1924.

Academic career

After the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

'', Kraft was forced to leave his librarian position because of his wife's

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

background. He lost his

as university teacher as well. Kraft continued his philosophical research with great difficulties as "inner emigrant" during the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

regime. He regained his post at the university library in 1945, and became Generalstaatsbibliothekar (national librarian) in 1947. In this year he was also appointed associate professor for philosophy. Three years later he became full professor and co-director of the school of philosophy. He retired from his post in 1952. Kraft kept his research and publishing until his death. The Kraft Circle, which he chaired between 1949 and 1952/3, was named after him, and it was during this period that he supervised the dissertation of

Paul Feyerabend Paul Karl Feyerabend (; ; January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994) was an Austrian philosopher best known for his work in the philosophy of science. He started his academic career as lecturer in the philosophy of science at the University of Bri ...

and

Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (; 25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. She is regarded as one of the major voices of German-language literature in the 20th century. In 1963, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature b ...

. Karl Sigmund, ''Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science'', Hachette UK, 2017.

Philosophical work

Among the

logical positivists Logical positivism, also known as logical empiricism or neo-positivism, was a philosophical movement, in the empiricist tradition, that sought to formulate a scientific philosophy in which philosophical discourse would be, in the perception of ...

, Kraft represents a unique standing point: he wrote about a non-sensualist

empiricism In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological view which holds that true knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience and empirical evidence. It is one of several competing views within epistemology, along ...

with a hypothetical-deductive structure. Before the First World War (and after it together with the Vienna Circle members) he dedicated most of his lectures and publications to promote scientific philosophy. He also made important contributions to the establishment of ethics as science and wrote about the theory of geography and the philosophy of history.

References

External links

Victor Kraft
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2012)

at

Innsbruck University The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian Bundesland of Tirol, and the th ...

Biography
mainly based on the obituary: {{DEFAULTSORT:Kraft, Victor 1880 births 1975 deaths Vienna Circle Writers from Vienna 20th-century Austrian philosophers

Early life and education

Academic career

Philosophical work

References

Further reading

External links