Early Carnap in Context: Three Case Studies and the Diaries

Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970) is regarded a classic of 20th century analytic philosophy and philosophy of science. This is true, in particular, for Carnaps work as a member of the Vienna circle (1927-1935) and for his time in the US (1936-1970). However, the early work of this outstanding philosopher, in particu- lar, his first major book Der logische Aufbau der Welt (Aufbau for short), published in 1928, represent a side of German cultural and philosophical history that has been neglected for a long time for two con- verging reasons. First, Carnaps work before the Logical Syntax of Language has been considered imma- ture and systematically unsuccessful. Second, Carnaps early work has been neglected simply because the entirety of the philosophical and scientific culture that was forced to emigrate in the 1930s has been neglected since 1945 (cf. the narrative expelled reason, Vertriebene Vernunft). In recent decades, however, things have changed. Both the systematic merits of Carnaps early work, in particular, the Auf- bau, and the historical importance of the intellectual networks of the early Carnap have been pointed out by such authors as (in alphabetical order) Steve Awodey, Andre Carus, Hans Joachim Dahms, Michael Friedman, Gottfried Gabriel, Hannes Leitgeb, Thomas Mormann, Erich Reck, Alan Richardson, Thomas Ryckman, Friedrich Stadler, Thomas Uebel, and Richard Zach. Still, the ways in which theoretical and practical philosophy are interconnected in the early work of Carnap have been hardly investigated. In- vestigating these interconnections and illustrating them by means of convergences between the men- tioned historical and systematic aspects of research on early Carnap represent the central aim of this project. The working hypothesis is that the theoretical aims of Carnaps early philosophical works (e.g., to provide purely structural definite descriptions for all concepts) are related to the practical aims of his philosophy. This hypothesis will be investigated by means of three case studies that extend the perspec- tive of the research to the broader historical background, namely, (1) Cohens system in context, (2) Non- experimental psychologies, and (3) The interplay of political, ethical and formal aspects in early Carnap. These case studies (in particular, case study 3) will be supported by a study of Carnaps early diaries and reading lists (1909-1936), which will be transcribed and annotated during the course of this project.

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