Institutskolloquium am 12.11.

Am Mittwoch, den 12.11.25, findet von 08:30 Uhr bis 10 Uhr im Besprechungszimmer am Institut für Soziologie das Institutskolloquium statt. Silvia Rief und Alan Scott werden ihr Paper mit dem Titel "The political flexibility of a theory: Holism between pluralism and anti-pluralism in early twentieth-century Vienna" präsentieren. 

Alle Interessierten sind herzlich zum Mitdenken und Diskutieren eingeladen. 

Abstract: In Otto Neurath's dramatic formulation, 'metaphysics' was part of the 'bourgeois front' while empiricism and empirical research found common cause with the 'proletarian front'. But is the relationship between an epistemological stance and a political position or specific political-claims making this clearcut? The assertion of such a non-contingent relationship has been challenged by sociologists and historians of ideas for whom this is an entirely empirical matter, "the same" theory can be used across political divides in both different contexts and, in the strong case, within the same context (e.g., Bandmayr 2021). Here we take holism in interwar Vienna as a test case. Holism there was associated with reactionary thought, notably Othmar Spann's 'Ganzheitslehre'. We examine examples of holistic and functionalist thought in left-wing theory building in: (i) Max Adler's understanding of sociation (Vergesellschaftung) as a 'social a priori'; (ii) Otto Bauer's and Karl Polanyi's support for 'functionalist democracy' and (iii) Otto Neurath’s work on socialization and the war economy. While elements of holism are found in each of these, this this does not clinch the case for the empirical/sceptical view. We identify subvariants of functionalist-holistic thought in the left and right camps that suggests that holism is not a fully flexible theoretical scheme with respect to political claims-making.