Carl Menger, a Public Engaged Intellectual, and Five Translations of His Newspaper Articles

This paper presents, for the first time in English translation, five writings of Carl Menger that appeared in Austrian newspapers: Crown-Prince Rudolf (1889); Survey on the Catholic University (1901); An Interview with Carl Menger (1903); The Conquest of the Universities (1907); The University Issue (1908). The introduction outlines a historical contextualization of the pieces. These writings provide some vital information concerning Menger’s ideas on education, university, and free scientific research. The first piece is an obituary of Crown-Prince Rudolf, and offers a rich description of Rudolf’s educational path and Menger’s attitude as a teacher. The other four pieces focus more on Menger’s academic activity and his assessment of the Austrian cultural struggle between Catholicism and free research. It appears that, in Menger’s view, the spirit of free inquiry and science is fundamentally incompatible with any religious worldview, whenever the latter affects the method of the researcher, and the results of her/his work.