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Rudolf Carnap,
largely known for his development of logical empiricism,
was born on May 18, 1891 in Ronsdorf, Germany. Although
his parents were profoundly Protestant, their tolerant
views allowed Carnap to make a smooth transition into the
more pantheistic and scientific ideology he developed
later in his life. Between 1910-14, he studied
mathematics, physics and philosophy at both the
University of Jena and Freiburg im Breisburg. In Jena he
was greatly influenced by the mathematician and logician,
Gottlob Frege. His studies though, were interrupted by
his service in the military. After World War I, he
returned to Jena to finish his doctoral degree in
philosophy which he completed in 1921. He then conducted
personal research for several years on logic and the
foundations of physics. This research lasted until 1926,
when Moritz Schlick invited him to the University of
Vienna as a member of the faculty and the Vienna Circle.
This was a group founded by Schlick as an
interdisciplinary forum for professors to discuss
philosophical issues. Carnap became a vital member of
this group and out of their discussions, the theory of
logical positivism began to take shape.
Logical positivism (or
logical empiricism) was both a result of his influences
in Vienna, and Carnap’s desire to create a new
philosophy that completely severed all ties with
metaphysical ideology. As an advocate of exploring and
sharing ideas with his fellow colleagues, Carnap found
the Vienna Circle to be an especially productive
environment. This sharing of intellectual ideas expanded
beyond Vienna and into other cities such as Berlin, where
he met the empiricist Hans Reichenbach. Together they
founded the journal Erkenntnis (1930-40), as a
forum for the new ideas developing in scientific
philosophy. The Vienna Circle conversations, especially
with Moritz Schlick, helped Carnap develop his ideas of
logical empiricism through an analysis of the language of
science, specifically in the construction of formal and
logical systems. He was especially interested in the
areas of semantics and inductive logic. Although Carnap
was influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ideas of
truth in logical conceptions, their philosophical
foundations diverged as Wittgenstein seemed more
interested in individual and aesthetic conceptions of
philosophy, while Carnap focused on a more scientific
philosophy. He pursued this area of research by asserting
that sentences and terms, those words and ideas that
humans use initially in their observations and
descriptions of the world, could be reduced to a second
empirical level of thought. This is detailed in his work
The Logical Structure of the World (Der
logische Aufbau der Welt). Later, he furthered this
idea by arguing that these empirical statements could
then be tested and described in the language of physics.
He felt this concept of physicalistic materialism could
be used in both the physical and social sciences. Carnap
eventually left Vienna and in 1931, took the position of
Professor of Natural Philosophy in Prague, where he
continued to develop his conceptions of empiricism. In
1935, as the threat of Nazism grew intolerable for
Carnap, he left Prague, opting to move to the United
States to continue his work.
In the United States,
Carnap first served on the faculty of the University of
Chicago. He stayed there until 1952, with the exception
of the 1940-41 academic year, where he served as a
visiting professor at Harvard University. Here he was
surrounded by intellectuals such as the British
philosopher Bertrand Russell, who was one of
Carnap’s greatest philosophical influences. Chicago
proved to provide a rich intellectual community for
Carnap. With sociologist Otto Neurath and philosopher
Charles Morris, he founded the publication,
"International Encyclopedia of Unified Science." This
publication focused on issues concerning the philosophy
of science, in areas such as mathematics and certain
branches of empirical science. After 1945, he began to
rigorously pursue a formal system of inductive logic,
writing the book, Logical Foundations in
Probability in 1950. Here he writes in depth how
probability can be used when imparting evidence upon a
proposed hypothesis. After leaving Chicago he continued
to work with probability throughout his service at the
Institute for Advance Study in Princeton (1952-1954).
Carnap then took a professorship at the University of
California, Los Angeles; during this time and until his
death in 1970 he continued to further his theory of
inductive logic.
-Christina
Weber-
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