Outside of mathematics, Menger has substantial contributions to game theory and social sciences.

Karl Menger was a student of Hans Hahn and received his PhD from the University of Vienna in 1924.

In 1983, IIT awarded Menger a Doctor of Humane Letters and Sciences degree.

With Arthur Cayley, Menger is considered one of the founders of distance geometry; especially by having formalized definitions of the notions of angle and of curvature in terms of directly measurable physical quantities, namely ratios of distance values.

He was an active participant of the Vienna Circle, which had discussions in the 1920s on social science and philosophy.