Several recent posts convey commented on the ascent of a nationalistic, nativist politics inward numerous contemporary democracies some...
Several recent posts convey commented on the ascent of a nationalistic, nativist politics inward numerous contemporary democracies some the world. The implications of this political procedure are deeply challenging to the values of liberal democracy. We involve to attempt to empathize these developments. (Peter Merkl's enquiry on European right-wing extremism is really helpful here; Right-wing Extremism inward the Twenty-first Century.)
One plausible approach to trying to empathize the dynamics of this plough to the far correct is to catch relevantly like historical examples. H5N1 really interesting study on the history of Austria's right-wing extremism betwixt the wars was published latterly past times Janek Wasserman, Black Vienna: The Radical Right inward the Red City, 1918-1938.
Wasserman emphasizes the importance of ideas as well as civilisation inside the ascent of Austrofascism, as well as he makes usage of Gramsci's concept of hegemony equally a agency of agreement the link betwixt philosophy as well as politics. The pro-fascist correct held a dominant run inside major Viennese cultural as well as educational institutions. Here is how Wasserman describes the content of ultra-conservative philosophy as well as ideology inward inter-war Vienna:
The ideas represented inside its institutions ran a broad spectrum, yet its discourse centered on radical anti-Semitism, High German nationalism, völkisch authoritarianism, anti-Enlightenment (and antimodernist) thinking, as well as corporatism. The potential for collaboration betwixt Catholic conservatives as well as High German nationalists has exactly inward recent years begun to attract scholarly attention. (6)This climate was highly inhospitable towards ideas as well as values from progressive thinkers. Wasserman describes the intellectual as well as cultural climate of Vienna inward these terms:
At the plough of the century, Republic of Austria was i of the most culturally conservative nations inward Europe. The advocacy of avant-garde scientific theories hence position the First Vienna Circle— as well as its intellectual forbears— nether pressure. Ultimately, it left them inward marginal positions until several years after the Great War. In the wake of the Wahrmund affair, discussed inward chapter 1, intellectuals advocating secularist, rationalist, or liberal views faced a hostile academic landscape. Ernst Mach, for example, was an intellectual outsider at the University of Vienna from 1895 until his leave of absence inward 1916. Always supportive of socialist causes, he left a part of his estate to the Social Democrats inward his terminal volition as well as testament. His theories of sensationalism as well as radical empiricism were challenged on all sides, most notably past times his successor Ludwig Boltzmann. His students, amid them David Josef Bach as well as Friedrich Adler, either had to leave of absence the province to notice appointments or surrender academics altogether. Unable to notice positions inward Vienna, Frank moved to Prague as well as Neurath to Heidelberg. Hahn did non have a seat until after the war. The First Vienna Circle disbanded because of a lack of chance at home. (110-111)Philosophy played an of import run inward the politics of inter-war Vienna, on both the correct as well as the left. Othmar Spann was a highly influential conservative thinker who openly defended the values of National Socialism. On the left were Enlightenment-inspired philosophers who were proponents for argue as well as science. The pioneering analytic philosopher as well as guiding lite of the Vienna Circle was Moritz Schlick. In 1934 Schlick was required to written report to the Viennese law to demonstrate that the Vienna Circle was non a political organisation (Black Vienna, 106). Schlick responded alongside 3 letters intended to demonstrate factually that the Circle was "absolutely unpolitical". He defended a project design of value-free science, as well as maintained that the debates considered past times the Vienna Circle were solely inside the reach of value-free science. But, equally Wasserman points out, the doctrines of positivism as well as modern scientific rationality that were at the inwardness of Vienna Circle philosophy were themselves politically contentious inward the conservative intellectual climate of inter-war Vienna. It is too truthful that some members of the circle were inward fact active progressive thinkers as well as actors. The most overtly political fellow member of the Vienna Circle was Otto Neurath, who had been imprisoned for his participation inward the Bavarian Soviet Republic inward 1918.
Intellectual influence depends on the mightiness of an intellectual displace to gain positions inward universities as well as other cultural institutions. The endeavor to win positions of influence inward Austrian universities as well as other leading cultural institutions was strongly weighted towards the conservatives as well as nationalists:
H5N1 comparing of placement success alongside the Vienna Circle of logical empiricists is telling. Spann managed to identify 4 students into total professorships inward Republic of Austria during the interwar period; Moritz Schlick did non deal to identify a unmarried one. Likewise, the psychologists Karl as well as Charlotte Bühler could non identify anyone inward High German or Austrian universities. Although members of Schlick’s as well as Bühler’s respective circles attracted international recognition for their piece of occupation inward philosophy as well as science, they could non notice institutional safety inward interwar Austria. The converse was truthful for the members of Spannkreis: they dominated the Austrian intellectual landscape yet enjoyed petty international success. (91)
The assassination of Moritz Schlick was a unmarried tragic 2nd inward this large historical canvas. Schlick was shot to leave of absence inward the primary edifice of the academy past times a right-wing student, Johann Nelböck, inward 1936. The background of the assassination appears to have involved politics equally good equally personal grievances, according to a document titled "Philosophie der Untat", drafted past times Professor Eckehart Köhler inward 1968 as well as made publicly available inward the 2000s through Reddit (link). Köhler's document is good worth reading. It was drafted inward 1968 as well as printed past times the Union of Socialist Students of Republic of Austria for distribution at a philosophy of scientific discipline conference inward Vienna; but the pupil organisation so got mutual coldness feet close the claims made as well as dumped 2000 copies into the Danube River. The document was rediscovered inward the 1990s. According to Köhler, Nelböck was influenced past times reactionary Vienna philosopher Leo Gabriel. It is apparent that the scientific philosophy of the Vienna Circle was at odds with the conservative thought that dominated Vienna; inward fact, after his pardon past times the Nazi regime after the Anschluss, Nelböck proposed to create an option to positivism that he named "negativism". It is ironic that the violence against Schlick had to exercise alongside the philosophy of positivism rather than the political programme of socialism.
The University of Vienna had a shameful history during the Nazi period. Following the Anschluss the academy expelled to a greater extent than than 2,700 faculty as well as students, most of whom were Jewish, according to Professor Katharina Kniefacz's curt history of these issues inward the academy (link). "Anti-Semitic tendencies culminated inward the consummate as well as systematic expulsion of Jewish teachers as well as students from the University of Vienna after Austria's 'Anschluss' to the National Socialist High German Reich inward 1938" (6). Few were invited to return, as well as world contrition for these expulsions exactly began to occur inward the 1990s. According to Kniefacz, anti-semitism inside the academy persisted for decades after the destination of Nazi rule. And ii rectors of the academy who served without objection during the Nazi catamenia are memorialized inward the Main Building of the University (10).
This history is yet of swell relevance inward Republic of Austria today. The Austrian far correct came inside a handful of votes of winning the presidency inward May 2016, based on a virulent anti-immigrant platform. And the country's high courtroom has at in i lawsuit invalidated that election, preparing the Earth for a 2nd election afterward this year. It is a really expert inquiry to wonder how widespread attitudes of racism, nativism, as well as anti-semitism are inward the Austrian population today -- the really climate of racism as well as intolerance mentioned inward the Schlick memorial above.
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