Moritz Schlick

Moritz Schlick was a prominent 20th-century German philosopher who founded the Vienna Circle in the 1920s. The Vienna Circle was an influential group of scientists and philosophers who developed the philosophical movement known as logical positivism.

As the founder and central figure of the Vienna Circle, Schlick championed the 'verification principle,' the idea that a statement is only meaningful if it can be empirically proven or is logically true. He organized the meetings and publications that formalized this radical approach to scientific philosophy.

Schlick was involved in a famous epistemological debate regarding 'protocol sentences,' which are the basic, foundational observation statements used in science. He argued for 'confirmations' (Konstatierungen), believing that certain immediate, empirical observations provide an absolutely certain foundation for knowledge.

Moritz Schlick was assassinated on the steps of the University of Vienna in 1936. He was shot by a former student, Johann Nelböck, an event that effectively marked the tragic end of the Vienna Circle and forced its remaining Jewish and leftist members to flee the rise of Nazism.