2004
Volume 115, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 0002-5275
  • E-ISSN: 2352-1244

Abstract

Abstract

Rudolf Carnap and Ludwig Wittgenstein share many philosophical interests: an admiration of Frege’s formal logic, an anti-metaphysical stance and a modernist aesthetic aimed at removing superficial elements from discourse or thought. Despite their shared interests, Carnap and Wittgenstein ended their interaction in a plagiarism dispute. In this essay, I discuss which metaphilosophical reasons lie behind their dispute. I argue that Wittgenstein’s overarching philosophical project stood in direct conflict with Carnap’s. First, Wittgenstein never accepted that there are meaningful sentences about the language of science. Thus, there could be no meaningful reflection on science, and this nullified Carnap’s Logic of Science project. Second, Wittgenstein had an overall disdain for Carnap’s desire, as displayed in the and the , to reform philosophical activity as a part of science itself in tandem with a general reform of the place science in society.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/ANTW2023.2.006.DEWU
2023-05-01
2024-10-04
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Carnap, R. (1998[1928]) Der logische Aufbau der Welt. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Carnap, R. (1931) ‘Die Physikalische Sprache als Universalsprache der Wissenschaft’. Erkenntnis2, pp. 432-465.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Carnap, R. (1934) Der logische Syntax der Sprache. Wien: Verlag von Julius Springer.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Carnap, R. (1936) ‘Von der Erkenntnistheorie zur Wissenschaftslogik’, in: L.Rougier (red.), Actes du Congrès international de philosophie scientifique. Paris: Herman, pp. 36-42.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Carnap, R. (1963) ‘Intellectual Autobiography’, in: P.Schlipp (red.), The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, La Salle, Illinois: Northwestern University, pp. 3-81.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Carnap, R, Neurath, O. en Hahn, H. (2013) [1929] ‘Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung: Die programmatik des Wiener Kreis’, in: C.Damböck (red.), Der Wiener Kreis: Ausgewählte Texte, Stuttgart: Reklam, pp.7-33.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Carus, A. (2007) Carnap and Twentieth-Century Thought: Explication as Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Damböck, C. (red.) (2022) Rudolf Carnap: Tagebücher, band 2, 1920-1935. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Feigl, H. (1969) ‘The Wiener Kreis in America’, in: Fleming en Bailyn (red.), Intellectual Migration: Europe and America, 1930–1960, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, pp. 630-673.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Friedl, J. (2021) ‘The Vienna Circle’s Relationship with Wittgenstein’, in: T.Uebel en C.Limbeck-Lilienau (red.), The Routledge Handbook to Logical Empiricism, London: Routledge, pp. 279-288.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Friedman, M. (2012) ‘Scientific Philosophy from Helmholtz to Carnap and Quine’, in: R.Creath (red.), Rudolf Carnap and the Legacy of Logical Empiricism, Cham: Springer, pp. 1-13.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Galison, P. (1990) ‘Aufbau/Bauhaus: Logical Positivism and Architectural Modernism’, Critical Inquiry16 (4), pp. 709-752.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Hempel, C.G. (1935) ‘On the Logical Positivists’ Theory of Truth’, Analysis2 (4), pp. 49-59.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Hempel, C.G. (1969) ‘Logical Positivism and the Social Science’, in: P.Achinstein en F.Barker (red.), The Legacy of Logical Positivism, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, pp. 163-195.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Mc Guiness, B.F. (red.) (1967) Friedrich Waismann: Wittgenstein und der Wiener Kreis, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Neurath, O. (1937) ‘Unified Science and its Encyclopedia’, Philosophy of Science4 (2), pp. 265-277.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Reichenbach, H. (1936) ‘L’empirisme logistique et la désagregation de l’a priori’, in: L.Rougier, (red.), Actes du Congrès international de philosophie scientifique. Paris: Herman, pp. 28-36.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Reichenbach, H. (1951) The Rise of Scientific Philosophy, Berkely and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Stadler, F. (2015) The Vienna Circle: Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism, Cham: Springer.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Stern, D. (2007) ‘Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and Physicalism: A Reassessment’, in: A.Richardson en T.Uebel (red.), The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Wittgenstein, L.2010 [1921] Tractatus logico-philosophicus, vertaald door Hermans, W.F., Amsterdam: Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.5117/ANTW2023.2.006.DEWU
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error