Wilhelm Neurath (; 31 May 1840 – 9 March 1901) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

political economist Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour mar ...

of the late nineteenth century. He was professor of economics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Early years

Neurath was born in

Svätý Jur Svätý Jur (; german: Sankt Georgen; he, Yergen; hu, Szentgyörgy; formerly ''Jur pri Bratislave'') is a small historical town northeast of Bratislava, located in the Bratislava Region. The city is situated on the slopes of Little Carpathians ...

into poor but pious

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. He left home to attend primary school between the ages of 9 and 12, but after only one year in secondary school, his parents were unable to continue to afford his education. They were also concerned that further study might erode his alignment with their religion. However, by supporting himself as an assistant teacher, he was able, from the age of thirteen, to continue his education, learning

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

by helping others to learn it. At the age of seven, he recalled, he was "deeply stirred" by his father's fanatical religious condemnations and sought solace in his own company wandering in the forests. Strengthened from his dreams about "God's ways", he turned to science, particularly

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

, his favourite book being Lagrange's ''Mécanique analytique'' (1788). Soon he added

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...

and

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

to his range of interests. However, after providing mathematical training to a philosophical writer, he read

Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemolo ...

's '' Critique of Pure Reason'' and consequently embraced

materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...

and

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

Career

After gaining his doctorate he became a ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...

'' at the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

Publications

* ''Volkswirthschaftliche und Socialphilosophische Essays'' (Vienna: Faesy & Frick, 1880) * ''Elemente der Volkswirthschaftslehre'' (Vienna, 1882) * ''System der Sozialen und Politischen Oekonomie'' (ed. 1885) * ''Das Recht auf Arbeit und das Sittliche in der Volkswirthschaft'' (ed. 1886) * ''Wahre Ursachen der Überproduktionskrisen'' (1892) * ''Das Sinken des Zinsfusses'' (ed. 1893) * ''Die Fundamente der Volkswirthschaftslehre: Kritik und Neugestaltung'' (Leipzig, 1894), first published in Rothschilds ''Taschenbuch für Kaufleute'' * ''Das Hauptproblem der Modernen Volkswirtschaft'' (Vienna, 1899)

References

External links

* 1840 births 1901 deaths Austrian atheists 19th-century Austrian economists {{Austria-economist-stub