Book contents
- Otto Neurath in Britain
- Otto Neurath in Britain
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Archival Sources and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Prelude
- Chapter 2 From Vienna to The Hague
- Chapter 3 Escape and Internment
- Chapter 4 Becoming ‘British Furniture’
- Chapter 5 Logical Empiricism in Britain
- Chapter 6 The Language Problem
- Chapter 7 Visual Education
- Chapter 8 On German Culture and Post-war Re-education
- Chapter 9 From Socialist to Democratic Planning in Context
- Chapter 10 ‘Sociologist of Happiness’
- Coda
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 8 - On German Culture and Post-war Re-education
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2025
- Otto Neurath in Britain
- Otto Neurath in Britain
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Archival Sources and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Prelude
- Chapter 2 From Vienna to The Hague
- Chapter 3 Escape and Internment
- Chapter 4 Becoming ‘British Furniture’
- Chapter 5 Logical Empiricism in Britain
- Chapter 6 The Language Problem
- Chapter 7 Visual Education
- Chapter 8 On German Culture and Post-war Re-education
- Chapter 9 From Socialist to Democratic Planning in Context
- Chapter 10 ‘Sociologist of Happiness’
- Coda
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines an intriguing debate that Neurath started along with co-author J. A. Lauwerys by denouncing Plato’s Republic as a totalitarian vision with affinities to Nazism. They did this in the context of planning German re-education after the war. Neurath had a theory about the inherent tendencies in what he called the ‘German climate’ for subservience to grand ideas of duty, and he felt that continued reverence for Plato could lead young Germans astray in this respect. His attack on Plato provoked an angry response from countless educators and scholars in 1944, raising issues that are still relevant today. Neurath and Lauwerys’ views were overshadowed by Popper’s similar treatment of Plato in The Open Society and Its Enemies and, to Popper’s annoyance, he was lumped together with them by some critics.
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- Otto Neurath in Britain , pp. 208 - 231Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025