ABSTRACT
Otto Neurath’s philosophical inclinations, extending to the realm of political economy, underlie his thinking about the nature and scope of scientific inquiry, even as he saw a melding of the scientific with the political, as Neurath scholars like Nancy Cartwright, Jordi Cat, and Thomas Uebel, among others, have noted (Cartwright, Cat, Fleck, and Uebel 1996). Such inclinations are sufficiently broad as to raise a curious paradox. Setting his probing of the epistemology of science as a necessarily incomplete venture against his call for attaining a unity of science across all subject matter accorded scientific weight raises the question as to whether his thought and overall perspective make him the consummate representative of mid-twentieth century modernism or one of the precursors of late-twentieth century postmodernism.
