Philosopher, lawyer
Felix Kaufmann was born in Vienna. He studied law and political science at the University of Vienna. In 1919 he became doctor of jurisprudence and in 1926 he received his doctorate of philosophy. From 1922 to 1938, Kaufmann was privatdozent in philosophy of law, at the University of Vienna.
In 1938, following the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, Kaufmann emigrated to the U.S.A. From then until his death he was a member of the graduate faculty at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Kaufmann specialized in theory of knowledge, logic, philosophy, mathematics and law. As a representative of the so-called ‘Reine Rechtslehre’ of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, he elaborated primarily the works of Hans Kelsen based on phenomenology. He was greatly influenced by Moritz Schlick a leading member of the ‘Vienna Circle’ and adherent of neo-positivism. Kaufmann was also involved in the early discussions of the Vienna Circle. He never rigidly adopted, however, the main principles of logical positivism. His major concern was to discriminate between the methodology of the social sciences and the methodology of the physical sciences. He believed that the rules, their applications and purposes adopted by social scientists differ from those found in physical sciences, especially being directed toward the clarification of knowledge rather than its acquisition. His most important work relating to this subject: Methodenlerne der Socialwissenschaften (1936) was translated into English in 1944 as Methodology of the Social Sciences. His earlier works include: Logic und Rechtswissenschaft (Tuebingen, 1922); Die Kriterien des Rechts (Tuebingen, 1924, new edition 1966); Die phylosophischen Grundprobleme der Lehre von der Strafrechtsschuld (Vienna, 1929); Das unendliche in der Mathematik und seine Ausschaltung (Vienna, 1930; 2nd edition 1968).