Felix Kaufmann (4 July 1895 - 23 December 1949)
Born in Vienna where he also studied philosophy, law and political science. During his time in Vienna he was connected to the Vienna Circle, but was primarily interested in connecting with Husserl’s phenomenology. He was already closely connected to Alfred Schütz. The wide range of his work includes writings on philosophy of law, mathematics and logic, as well as research on the methodology of sociology. In 1919 he was awarded his Doctorate of Law, in 1926 his Doctorate of Philosophy, and in 1927 he began working as an associate professor at the University of Vienna. He supported himself with a job as a manager of the Austrian branch of an international oil firm. After the annexation of Austria in 1938, Kaufmann immigrated to the USA via Paris and London. There he accepted a position at the New School for Social Research in New York. Kaufmann’s complete academic estate, including correspondence on microfilm, is available in the Archive. The originals are kept in the Centre for Advanced Research in Phenomenology at the Wilfried Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. An estate index is available. The organization and indexing of the estate was made possible by the sponsorship of the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation.