The social origins of modern science

Edgar Zilsel is perhaps the least well-known member of the Vienna Circle. Although he was a council member of the official Verein Ernst Mach he never played a central role in the debates of the logical positivists, neither in Vienna before the Anschluss nor in exile. While he published only one article in the Erkenntnis he contributed a lengthy piece to the Neurath-Carnap-Morris Encyclopedia and published three articles in Philosophy of Science (and some others in scholarly journals not affiliated with the camp of logical positivism, all written during the relatively short last period of his life. In 1944, at the age of 53, he committed suicide, six years after his arrival in the American exile.