Part II Menger's Viennese Autobiography (Book B)

Abstract

[Part II in Menger's drafts is divided into four chapters. The first is mainly taken up with Menger's description of L. E. J. Brouwer, the Dutch mathematician with whom Menger worked as assistant during his stay in Amsterdam in the mid-1920s; none of this part is included in Menger's Reminiscences, although the book makes several references to Brouwer. Moreover, Menger's Selected Papers (Menger, 1979) contain a long and very detailed chapter, ‘My memories of L. E. J. Brouwer’, written in 1978, and therefore at the time of Menger's drafts. The second chapter deals with Menger's contacts within the Vienna Circle after his return from Holland (1927) until his sabbatical years spent in the USA (1930–31). In Menger's Reminiscences, Chapter Four (mainly devoted to his theory of curve and dimension) and the two-page Chapter Eleven cover that period, as do some passages in Menger's Introduction to Hahn's Philosophical Papers (Menger, 1980). The third chapter of the drafts is concerned with Menger's visits to the USA. Chapter Thirteen in Reminiscences deals with this topic, but it omits these following parts. Finally, the fourth chapter of the drafts describes Menger's years in Vienna between 1931 and 1938, when his Colloquium grew increasingly important. His disagreement with philosophical developments in the Circle became very evident, and the political situation in Austria was then lapsing into the fascist darkness; Menger's Reminiscences, which end with Schlick's death in 1936, wholly omit these parts].

Citation

(2009), "Part II Menger's Viennese Autobiography (Book B)", Becchio, G. (Ed.) Unexplored Dimensions: Karl Mengeron Economics and Philosophy (1923–1938) (Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, p. 63. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-2134(2009)0000012011