Walter Dubislav (20 September 1895 – 17 September 1937) was a German logician and philosopher of science (Wissenschaftstheoretiker).

Biography

After studying mathematics and philosophy, Dubislav attained a doctorate in 1922 with "Contributions to the theories of definition and proof within mathematical logic" (Beiträge zur Lehre von der Definition und vom Beweis vom Standpunkt der mathematischen Logik aus). In 1928 he became a private lecturer in philosophy of mathematics and the natural sciences at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin (today Technische Universität Berlin) and from 1931 was Professor Extraordinarius (außerordentlicher Professor, ao. Prof.). In 1936 he emigrated to Prague. He was joint founder (with Hans Reichenbach and Kurt Grelling) of the 'Berlin Society for Empirical (later: Scientific) Philosophy' (Berliner Gesellschaft für empirische Philosophie), which, along with the Vienna Circle, is one of the points of origin of logical empiricism. The founding members of the Berlin Circle were listed as sympathisers within the Vienna Circle. Dubislav focused on a logical and mechanistic foundation of mathematics and physics, influenced by Bernard Bolzano's "Theory of Science" (Wissenschaftslehre). He presented a formalised account of Gottlob Frege's theory of definitions.

Publications