Rene Stein

“Philosophies turned away from the world were not to Hahn’s taste. According to him, however, they could still be found in the systems of German idealism—and how could it be otherwise? The Germans are known, after all, as the nation of thinkers and poets. But a new day is slowly breaking, and the liberation is coming from the same land that gave birth to political liberation—namely, England: the English, after all, are known as the nation of shopkeepers. And it is surely no accident that one and the same nation gave the world both democracy, on the one hand, and the rebirth of a philosophy turned toward the world, on the other; nor is it an accident that the same land that saw the beheading of a king also witnessed the execution of metaphysics. Yet the weapons of a philosophy that is turned toward the world are not the executioner’s sword and axe—it is not as bloodthirsty a beast as that—though its weapons are sharp enough. And today I want to talk about one of these weapons—namely, Occam’s razor.”
― Karl Sigmund, Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science

“The piecemeal reformer will seek to address the most urgent evils of society instead of aiming to achieve the greatest ultimate good, and this may look like a verbal quibble but Popper argued that it is the difference between a reasonable method of improving the lot of man, and a method which may easily lead to an intolerable increase in human suffering.
The case for utopian engineering runs like this: to act rationally we need to have an aim (an end), and then actions can be classified as rational if they are consistent with that end. By this logic, political actions are rational if they pursue the final end that has been set for the reform of the state. In that way, actions are driven by our ultimate political ends.”
― Rafe Champion, Popper: The Champion Guides

“And this led Schlick to formulate a succinct moral principle: “Sei glücksbereit! ” or, rendered literally in English, “Be ready for happiness!” The spirit of the remark, however, is perhaps more accurately caught by the less compact phrase “Always be ready to give happiness a chance!”
― Karl Sigmund, Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science

“Morality, Schlick was convinced, is not tied to self-denial: “It does not come dressed in a nun’s habit.” Quite the contrary: “Moral behavior springs from pleasure and pain; if one acts nobly, it is because one enjoys doing so…. Values are not dictated from above, but lie within; it is human nature to be good.”
― Karl Sigmund, Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science