Charles Morris an Otto Neurath und Rudolf Carnap, 21. Februar 1937 Februar 1937

Inclosed is a first draft for the prospectus.1RC 102-51-64; die erste von ursprünglich 4 Seiten fehlt in diesem Exemplar. I will be glad for your suggestions, and will also get Carnap’s reactions.

I do not believe that we can get this out before certain matters are settled, such as an invitation from Harvard for the Congress in 1939, and until you have received letters of acceptance from most of the authors. This last point is especially important if we are to permit advance subscriptions for single pamphlets as contemplated in my Alternative 2 – perhaps this alternative is not advisable, but I added it since it may give us and the Press valuable information. What do you think of it? Does its inclusion perhaps weaken the appeal to subscribe in advance for the whole set?

Also, if possible, I think the number of pamphlets should be definitely determined before the prospectus is sent out. Further, it would be very undesirable to announce the project and then have a half dozen authors decline to take part. So I do not favor getting out the prospectus until these various matters are settled as far as possible.

I had not thought of the possible ambiguity in the phrase Internat. Unity of Science Enc., but now that it is pointed out I favor Int. Enc of Unified Science.

I doubt if pamphlet 5 should be called Math. and Logic. If logic is to be specially mentioned, I doubt if Gödel or Menger are the persons – better then leave “logic” for the (possible) Lewis pamphlet or omit it from any title. Since we do not have much on the social sciences (i. e. only your pamphlet) what do you think of a pamphlet on the Sociology of Science, to be written by someone like Mannheim or my colleague Louis Wirth (this is a special interest of Wirth). This, plus a possible Lewis pamphlet, would bring the number back to 20 – which I prefer if we can be sue of the contents and authors. Should I write to Lewis? I could discuss the matter with him without involving us in any way, since I know him very well.

🕮aBlatt eins ist nicht erhalten. foundations of the sciences, with central scientific concepts, with questions of scientific method, and especially with science considered as a unified whole. Treatment of such problems will be supplemented by a presentation of the newer logical techniques, and by material drawn from the history of ideas, the sociology of science, and the general theory of signs. There will be extensive use of bibliographic and visual aids. The material will be presented in the form of independent monographs written after careful consultation with the editorial staff and with writers on related topics. The subjects will be so chosen that the total series will form a systematic whole treating of logic and mathematics, the biological sciences, the physical sciences, the social sciences, the theory of signs, the history of science and scientific philosophy, and the methodology of science. The monographs will be written for persons of the scientific type of mind interested in the whole range of science.

As a means of launching this wider project, it has been decided to publish a series of pamphlets, approximately twenty in number, which will serve as introductions to all the main fields which are to be represented in the Encyclopaedia, and which taken as a whole will constitute the first two volumes of the larger work. This preliminary series is to be entitled Foundations of the Unity of Science, and will be issued as an independent and completely self-contained unit. Subscription to the initial series will involve no necessary commitment to later volumes, but a satisfactory number of subscriptions to the Foundations of the Unity of Science is the necessary precondition 🕮 for undertaking the publication of the Encyclopaedia as a whole. Subscribers to the Foundations of the Unity of Science will not only obtain a complete and independent work at a substantially reduces rate, but they will be taking an active part in making possible the contemplated larger work of which the Foundations of the Unity of Science will be an integral part. Advance subscriptions at a reduced rate are also available to those whose interest does not extend to the initial set of pamphlets as a whole. The following pamphlets are contemplated:

This series may possibly be increased by two pamphlets. The set of 18 pamphlets will be sold to advance subscribers for $ 13.50 (or $ 15.00 if the series is extended to 20 pamphlets). bAm Rand hsl. ergänzt „instead of?“Advance subscriptions for separate pamphlets will be at the rate of $ .90 each. Prices will be considerably higher after the list of advance subscriptions is closed. The development of plans may in some cases require a change of authors from those here mentioned. The pamphlets will be issued during the period of January 1938 to August 1939. They can be paid for as they appear.

The project will be genuinely international in scope and authorship; every effort will be made to secure a unification of terminology and point of view in the treatments; a rigorous and critically scientific attitude will be maintained throughout. The Foundations of the Unity of Science and the wider 🕮International Encyclopaedia of Unified Science are not hastily conceived projects born of enthusiasm; they are rather the natural culmination of movements which have been under way in many countries for many years. Preceded by many preliminary congresses, two International Congresses for the Unity of Science have been already held (Paris, 1935; Copenhagen, 1936). The proceedings of the first congress are published by Hermann & Cie., Paris (Actes du Congrès International de Philosophie Scientifique, 1936); the Proceedings of the Copenhagen Congress will appear in the 1937 pages of the journal Erkenntnis (F. Meiner, Leipzig), and this journal can be found information as to the development of the unity of science movements in recent years. Annual Congresses are being planned, and preparations are being made for a Congress to be held at Harvard University in September 1939.

The Unity of Science movement, the Congresses, and the Encyclopaedia are natural correlaries of the sustained systematic progress of science and the increasing specialization of science. They aim to deal in the spirit of science with those matters which concern the scientific enterprise in its totality. Of their relevance and timeliness thee can be no legitimate doubt. It is to be hoped that scientist and scientifically minded philosophers will make them their own. The most concrete form of aid at the moment is to ensure the development of the publication program by advance subscription to the Foundations of the Unity of Science.

(Signed by members of the Organizing Committee? Also by Advisory Committee?)