Exact Thinking in Demented Times, Karl Sigmund’s fond and knowledgeable exploration of the ideas and members of the legendary Vienna circle between the two world wars, contains stark warnings not only about demented times, but also about the possible costs of exact thinking ... These arguments [between members of the Vienna Circle], which seemed so abstract, produced insights of vital importance for computing, astrophysics and cosmology, not to mention theory of science and philosophy. Mr Sigmund devotes a considerable part of the book to explaining some of these concepts. Readers unable to grasp them immediately are in good company ... Between the two crimes of (possibly demented) conscience, Mr Sigmund describes a world of intellectual endeavour. Barring the odd stylistic infelicity, he handles his material well. A Viennese physicist himself, he is as comfortable with local detail as he is with the grand picture.
Sigmund makes little effort to assess the legacy of logical positivism after the breakup of the [Vienna] circle. Nor does he furnish anything more than a superficial — and, in one respect, seriously inaccurate — survey of its philosophical antecedents. What he does supply is a brisk and engaging account of the volatile mix of characters that came together to form the Vienna Circle... The book also gives a vivid picture of the 'demented times' in which they attempted to carry out their 'exact thinking,' chronicling how Vienna between the wars, diminished by the loss of its status as the capital of a multiethnic empire and riven by ideological tensions, descended from cultural vitality into Nazi barbarism ... All of this makes for a book that, if not philosophically sophisticated, is packed with information and, for the most part, a pleasure to read. But one thing detracts from its appeal: its pages are stuffed with hackneyed phrases. That may not be the author’s fault.
Sigmund, a distinguished mathematician himself and a professor emeritus at the University of Vienna, has produced a stimulating account of the [Vienna] Circle, not only stating with clarity its ideas but also giving colorful portraits of and personal stories about its members — altogether a more accessible and entertaining work than an older book on the subject by Victor Kraft, published in 1953. At the same time, Sigmund has thoroughly researched his subject, with many quotations from the journals, papers and books of the people concerned and a bibliography citing more than 350 original sources, many of which the author read in the original German ... Sigmund’s book is full of vivid descriptions of people and places ... My main quibble with Sigmund’s book is its frequent digressions, breaking the narrative flow to give us several pages of biography of a new character — and there are far too many characters to follow — or to provide historical or intellectual background.
If one place shines for how Europe has changed the world in art, commerce, medicine, music, politics, science, and so much more, it would be Vienna. Exact Thinking author Karl Sigmund reminds us of that forgotten past in a history of the Vienna Circle ... Sigmund tells his story in a way that engages and educates but never bores the reader. His easy prose explains why philosophy is important and how dialogue even on the highest level seldom makes any difference ... Each chapter begins with a dramatic teaser to draw in the reader. The book has extensive annotation. Characters have pictures ... The author does not engage in name dropping. All significant characters including the famous such as Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell make more than just appearances in this story. They merit and receive the attention they deserve.
Exact Thinking in Demented Times surveys this history in more or less chronological fashion ... It’s a valuable book, and the translation (by Mr. Sigmund himself) is almost flawless, though marred occasionally by an excessive enthusiasm for English idiom... Readers who are not versed in the period, however, will find it difficult to keep track of the bewildering array of characters, and the richness of the detail sometimes strays into over-indulgence ... The book advances no overall thesis, and we never really come to understand why the Vienna Circle flourished at a particular place in a particular period ... The context matters. One way to view the Vienna Circle is as part of Vienna’s extraordinary cultural and artistic burgeoning in the first decades of the 20th century. The term 'modernism' is applied to many innovations in these fields. And the spirit of modernism was alive within the Circle.
The 'Vienna Circle' was formed after the First World War with the goal of rebuilding the foundations of math, science and philosophy. Sigmund, a mathematician who teaches inside the same university walls, gives a passionate and subtly humorous account of the group... The circle became the center of a movement called logical empiricism and shaped modern scientific thinking, enduring in an anxiety-ridden Austria on the cusp of the Second World War.
The author, one of the pioneers of evolutionary game theory, traces these ideas through the members of the Vienna Circle, from informal pre–World War I gatherings through the group’s formal inception in 1924 to its dissolution following Hitler’s annexation of Austria ... Sigmund does not dwell on the abstruse word and language issues strenuously debated by the circle so much as sketch the colorful lives and loves of the members and their friends against the demented backdrop of interwar Vienna ... Many readers will agree that we are currently living in 'demented times,' and Sigmund adeptly lays out a history that has great relevance for today.
