The Anti-Spengler and Neurath's critique of the philosophy of history and comprehensive sociology

Abstract

Neurath formulated a series of fundamental objections to Oswald Spengler's book The Decline of the West, which had a remarkable impact in the following years of its release. Neurath's Anti-Spengler defends an empirical sociology, regarding the positivist tradition. This text prefigures several ideas that would be characteristic of the Vienna Circle and criticizes specifically the interpretative and speculative philosophy of history. It also anticipates many elements of the methodological approach developed subsequently, defending an explanatory sociology, empirically verifiable and consistent with the body of scientific knowledge. A sociological conception widely confronted with the idea of a comprehensive sociology implicit in the so-called "Science of the Spirit". Taking Anti-Spengler as the guiding principle, the article discusses about some significant aspects of the differences between the vision of the social sciences proposed by Neurath and those represented by Spengler or Weber. Finally, it’s sustained that neo-positivist philosophy had a significant influence on the applied sociological research of the second half of the 20th century.