Andric and Austrian philosophy

Philosophy occupied an important place in Ivo Andric?s higher education. In Vienna 1913, Andric took undergraduate courses in philosophy that were taught by Wilhelm Jerusalem, Oscar Ewald and Josef Clemens Kreibig, while on his PhD studies he passed the exam in philosophy with Hugo Spitzer, one of the rare neo-Kantians in Austria-Hungary at that time. Austrian philosophy (this phrase covers Austro-Hungarian philosophers who worked outside the boundaries of our-day Austria) is an interesting phenomenon because, among other things, Austria is relatively young philosophical nation that gave, within less than one century (from 1840s to 1930s), many famous philosophers of whom some were also famous scientists. There are some attempts of finding out what all Austrian philosophers have in common, and, according to the so-called the Neurath-Haller thesis, the hallmark of Austrian philosophy is accepting the scientific world-view, using language analysis in addressing philosophical issues, appraising psychology and endorsing empiricism that presupposes rejecting speculative metaphysics. It is worth stressing that although they wrote in the same language, many prominent Austrian philosophers explicitly wanted to distance themselves from classical German idealism (and very often from Kantian transcendental idealism) both with regards to form (the style of writing) and content (the ideas they defended). The author examines to what extent the philosophical education gained in Vienna and Graz influenced Andric?s work and argues that his thought contains elements characteristic for the main features of Austrian philosophy mentioned above.