In their manifesto, Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung: Der Wiener Kreis, Neurath, Carnap, and Hahn acknowledged that their philosophical and scientific crusade was both entrenched in the sociological and cultural battles of the day and subject to the vicissitudes of psychology, temperament, and social pressure:

Neurath, Carnap, and Hahn probably never imagined that “the historic developments” of the twentieth century would include a new kind of war, a cold war, that would influence intellectual, social, and economic life around the world. It was not just a few individuals who would opt for professionalism and social and cultural disengagement in ivory towers or on “the icy slopes of logic” but entire communities of intellectuals, including philosophers of science, who moved farther away from “the masses” as specialization, professionalization, and nonpartisan analysis became the norms of postwar intellectual life.