ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that this highly innovative endeavour was heavily stimulated by the experience of plurality in Habsburg Vienna. The main result of their epistemological endeavours may be summarized as follows: Since they wanted scholarship and science to have their share in describing the modern, pluralized world, they were concerned with eliminating propositions from scientific endeavours that could not be confirmed by experience. The chapter shows how Mach, Freud and Kelsen responded to the experience of plurality characterized by multi-lingualism, overlapping traditions, and insecure identities. The anti-essentialist approach of scholarship, around 1900, is as relevant for societal integration today as it was a century ago. The Austrian philosopher Fritz Mauthner recognized that the unreflective use of language, Kelsen termed it 'substantivistic speech', had deeply penetrated science and scholarship, and had caused confusion in academic debates, since it allowed the misinterpretation of function as substance. However, this was confined to the intellectual elites.
