Edgar Zilsel

Edgar Zilsel (August 11, 1891, Vienna, Austria-Hungary – March 11, 1944,Oakland, California) was an Austrian-American historian and philosopher of science. He is considered to be among the modern "pioneers of the sociology of science".

Edgar Zilsel was the youngest child of a lawyer, Jacob Zilsel and his wife, Ina Kollmer, and had two older sisters, Wallie and Irma. He attended high school at the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium between 1902 and 1910 and then attended the University of Vienna where he studied philosophy, physics, and mathematics. He served in the military between August 1 and December 15, 1914 and received his PhD in 1915 while under the supervision of Heinrich Gomperz. His dissertation was entitled "A Philosophical Investigation of the Law of Large Numbers and related Laws". After working as a mathematician at an insurance company for a few months, he found a position as a teacher on February 16, 1917. He passed his teacher's examination on November 18, 1918 in mathematics, physics, and natural history.

Although linked to the Vienna Circle, Zilsel wrote criticizing the views of Circle members. As a Jewish Marxist he was unable to pursue an academic career in Austria. He participated actively in working people's education, teaching philosophy and physics at the Vienna People's University. From 1934 he taught mathematics and physics at a secondary school (Mittelschule) in Vienna.

As a philosopher, he combined Marxist views with the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle. He regularly published articles in academic as well as socialist journals. An extended version of his PhD thesis was published as a book (The Application Problem: a Philosophical Investigation of the Law of Large Numbers and its Induction). Two other books, The Religion of Genius: A Critical Study of the Modern Ideal of Personality and The Development of the Concept of Genius: a Contribution to the Conceptual History of Antiquity and Early Capitalism were published in 1918 and 1926 respectively.

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