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BIRTH - LIFE OVERVIEW
Rudolf Carnap (May 18, 1891 – September 14, 1970) was a German-language philosopher who pioneered in the field of metaphilosophy – the philosophy of philosophy. Carnap was one of the giants among twentieth century philosophers because he dismissed metaphysics and reworked inductive logic in a way that is considered “one of the greatest achievements of modern philosophy.” (Kaplan/Champawat, 2011) -
STUDY OF KANT
Carnap studied philosophy, physics & mathematics at Jena & Freiburg. He concentrated on Immanuel Kant, the central figure of modern philosophy, who synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism - although Carnap would eventually repudiate Kant's teachings. Kant taught that human understanding is the source of general laws of nature. Kant argued that scientific knowledge, morality & religious belief are mutually consistent & secure because they rest on the same foundation of human autonomy. -
STUDY UNDER FREGE
Carnap took three courses from Gottlob Frege over 3 years. Frege was professor of mathematics at Jena. During those courses, Frege expounded his system of logic and its applications in mathematics. However, Carnap’s principal interest at that time was in physics. -
WORLD WAR I
Carnap's studies were interrupted by World War I and Carnap served at the front until 1917. -
STUDY OF EINSTEIN
After the war, Carnap moved to Berlin and studied the theory of relativity. At that time, Albert Einstein was professor of physics at the University of Berlin. -
VIENNA CIRCLE
As a member of the Vienna Circle, Carnap advocated logical positivism – the only meaningful philosophical problems are those which can be solved by rigorous logical analysis. The most famous tenet of logical positivism is the verifiability principle: a synthetic statement is meaningful only if it is verifiable. (A statement is synthetic if its truth can only be determined by observation and experience. Its truth cannot be determined solely upon logic or the meaning of the words involved.) -
Der Logische Aufbau der Welt - Logical Construction of the World
A landmark in modern epistemology, argues that it should be based on modern symbolic logic - the method of representing logical expressions using symbols and variables rather than in ordinary language. This removes ambiguity in ordinary language, making logical analysis of scientific propositions very precise. He argued that science, based on experience, is the only source of knowledge of the world. Carnap calls it “constitution theory,” with high standards of explicitness, coherence, and rigor. -
FLED TO UNITED STATES
Carnap fled Prague from the Nazis to become a professor in the U.S. He wrote several books on semantics and its relationship to logic. Then he began to work on the structure of scientific theories. His main concerns were (i) to account for the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements and (ii) to formulate the verifiability principle - a criterion of significance appropriate to scientific language. Carnap also was wrote on formal logic and in inductive logic.
