{{Short description|Austrian philosopher}} {{distinguish|text=[[Victor Kraft (photographer)]]}} {{Infobox person | name = Victor Kraft | image = VictorKraftImage.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1880|07|04|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Vienna]], [[Austria-Hungary]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1975|01|03|1880|07|04|df=y}} | death_place = [[Purkersdorf]],<ref name="Wien">[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304132710/https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php/Viktor_Kraft Article] at Wien Geschichte Wiki</ref> Austria | occupation = Philosopher | education = [[University of Vienna]]<br />[[University of Berlin]] }} {{Logical positivism sidebar}} '''Victor Kraft''' ({{IPA|de-AT|kraft|lang}}; 4 July 1880 – 3 January 1975) <ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r1jBN5iehKsC&dq=viktor+kraft+1975&pg=PA719 | title=Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68 | isbn=978-0-415-09409-2 | last1=Russell | first1=Bertrand | last2=Köllner | first2=Peter | date=1997 | publisher=Psychology Press }}</ref> was an Austrian [[philosopher]]. He is best known for being a member of the [[Vienna Circle]].

==Early life and education== Kraft studied [[philosophy]], geography and history at the [[University of Vienna]]. He participated in the events of the university's Philosophical Society, as well as with private circles (especially [[Oskar Ewald]], [[Otto Weininger]] and [[Othmar Spann]]). He received in 1903 his Ph.D. with a dissertation titled ''The Knowledge of the External World'' (''Die Erkenntnis der Außenwelt''). Then he moved to [[Berlin]] to continue his studies under [[Georg Simmel]], [[Wilhelm Dilthey]] and [[Carl Stumpf]] at the [[University of Berlin]]. Kraft started working in 1912 at the university's library, where he was a scientific civil servant ("[[Beamter]]") until 1939.<ref name="Wien"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php/Viktor_Kraft|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114145141/https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php/Viktor_Kraft|url-status=dead|archive-date=2017-11-14|title=Viktor Kraft – Wien Geschichte Wiki|date=2017-11-14|access-date=2019-01-03}}</ref> In 1914, he completed his [[habilitation]] under [[Adolf Stöhr]] with his book ''The Concept of World and the Concept of Knowledge'' (''Weltbegriff und Erkenntnisbegriff''). Kraft attend regularly the [[Vienna Circle]] until its dissolution, and at the same time was also a member of the Gomperz Circle and had contacts to the so-called periphery of the Vienna Circle (e.g., [[Karl Popper]]). Victor Kraft received the title of associate professor for theoretical philosophy in 1924.

== Academic career == After the ''[[Anschluss]]'', Kraft was forced to leave his librarian position because of his wife's [[Jewish]] background. He lost his [[habilitation]] as university teacher as well. Kraft continued his philosophical research with great difficulties as "inner emigrant" during the [[Nazi]] regime.

He regained his post at the university library in 1945, and became Generalstaatsbibliothekar (national librarian) in 1947. In this year he was also appointed associate professor for philosophy. Three years later he became full professor and co-director of the school of philosophy. He retired from his post in 1952. Kraft kept his research and publishing until his death. The [[Kraft Circle]], which he chaired between 1949 and 1952/3, was named after him, and it was during this period that he supervised the dissertation of [[Paul Feyerabend]] and [[Ingeborg Bachmann]].<ref>[[Karl Sigmund]], ''Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science'', Hachette UK, 2017.</ref>

=== Philosophical work === Among the [[logical positivism|logical positivists]], Kraft represents a unique standing point: he wrote about a non-sensualist [[empiricism]] with a hypothetical-deductive structure. Before the First World War (and after it together with the Vienna Circle members) he dedicated most of his lectures and publications to promote scientific philosophy. He also made important contributions to the establishment of ethics as science and wrote about the theory of geography and the philosophy of history.

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * [[Paul Feyerabend|Feyerabend, Paul]]: ''Erkenntnislehre'', by Viktor Kraft [Review], in: ''The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science'', Vol. XIII, 1962/63, p.&nbsp;319-323. * [[Jan Radler|Radler, Jan]]: ''Victor Krafts konstruktiver Empirismus. Eine historische und philosophische Untersuchung'', Berlin: Logos 2006 [in German]. * [[Friedrich Stadler|Stadler, Friedrich]]: ''The Vienna Circle. Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism''. * [[Ernst Topitsch|Topitsch, Ernst]]: "Introduction", in: Victor Kraft, ''Foundations for a Scientific Analysis of Value'', ed. by [[Henk Mulder]], Dordrecht-Boston-London 1981 [Vienna Circle Collection, Vol. 15]. * [[Oliver Vollbrecht|Vollbrecht, Oliver]]: ''Victor Kraft: rationale Normenbegründung und logischer Empirismus: Eine philosophische Studie'', Munich: [[Herbert Utz Verlag]] 2004 [in German]. &mdash; [http://www.utzverlag.de/buecher/40344dbl.pdf Front matter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035045/http://www.utzverlag.de/buecher/40344dbl.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}

==External links== * [https://www.iep.utm.edu/kraft/ Victor Kraft] Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2012) * [https://www.uibk.ac.at/brenner-archiv/archiv/kraft.html Nachlass] at [[Innsbruck University]] * [https://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Hauke.Hoth/kraft Biography], mainly based on the obituary: {{cite journal|author=Kainz, Friedrich|year=1976|title=Viktor Kraft [Nachruf]|journal=Almanach für das Jahr 1975|publisher=[[Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften]]|pages= 519–557}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kraft, Victor}} [[Category:1880 births]] [[Category:1975 deaths]] [[Category:Vienna Circle]] [[Category:Writers from Vienna]] [[Category:20th-century Austrian philosophers]] [[Category:Burials at the Hietzing Cemetery]]