How Not to Square the Left Vienna Circle’s Non-Cognitivism with its Political Commitment

This paper contextualizes and criticizes a recent attempt to square the socio-political commitment of the members of the so-called left wing of the Vienna Circle with the ethical non-cognitivism that follows from their conception of cognitive meaningfulness. It is shown that intolerable consequences result from the moral-political reading of the “scientific world-conception” proposed and it is argued that squaring their commitment and non-cognitivism does not require such a reading. It is also pointed out how deleterious consequences are avoided by an already existent reconstruction of the left wing’s position which was misunderstood by the author criticized and which is briefly recollected.