Friedrich Waismann

Friedrich Waismann ( born March 21, 1896 in Vienna, † November 4, 1959 in Oxford) was an Austrian mathematician, physicist and philosopher. He was a member of the Vienna Circle and representatives of logical positivism.

After studying mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna, he began the study of philosophy under Moritz Schlick, the founder of the Vienna Circle, and was his assistant from 1929 to 1936. He was from 1937 to 1939 visiting professor at Cambridge (England). In 1939 he emigrated permanently to the UK, where he was first a lecturer in philosophy of science and then until his death Lecturer ( University Reader) for the philosophy of mathematics at Oxford University. In 1955 he was appointed a Fellow of the British Academy.

From 1927 to 1936 Waismann had several conversations with Ludwig Wittgenstein 's philosophy of language and mathematics. These conversations were recorded by Waismann and in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle (1967 Engl., 1984 German ) posthumously published by BF McGuinness.

In his book, Introduction to mathematical thinking: the formation of concepts of modern mathematics (1936 ) Waismann argues that mathematical truths are true by convention and not eo ipso. His collected lectures The Principles of Linguistic Philosophy (1965) and other collected articles are published posthumously in How I see Philosophy (1968).