Carnap's Construction of the World: The Aufbau and the Emergence of Logical Empiricism
This book is a major contribution to the history of analytic philosophy in general and of logical positivism in particular. It provides the first detailed and comprehensive study of Rudolf Carnap, one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century philosophy. The focus of the book is Carnap's first major work, Der logische Aufbau der Welt (The Logical Structure of the World). It reveals tensions in that work by placing it within the context of German epistemology and philosophy of...
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The first detailed and comprehensive study of Rudolf Carnap, an influential figure in twentieth-century philosophy.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction11Reconstructing the Aufbau5Fundamentals of the epistemology of the Aufbau6The received view of the Aufbau10Russell's external world program13Carnap's Aufbau and Russell's external world program22The Aufbau in context282The problem of objectivity: An overview of Carnap's constitutional project31Knowledge versus experience: The problem of subjective origins32Structure and objectivity35Purely structural definite description47Quasi analysis51Goodman's objections to quasi analysis593An outline of the constitutional projects of objectivity65The lowest levels of the constitutional system65The constitution of the world of physics70The constitution of the intersubjective world76The elimination of Rs87The problem of objectivity894The background to early Carnap: Themes from Kant92The Kantian problematic92The various notions of the synthetic a priori1015The fundamentals of neo-Kantian epistemology116Transcendental and formal logic117Conventionalism and the logic of objective knowledge124Problems for the neo-Kantians134The transition to Carnap1386Carnap's neo-Kantian origins: Der Raum139Logic and convention: Mathematical and physical space140Intuition and spatial knowledge1537Critical conventionalism159On the task of physics159The three-dimensionality of space and causality167The temporal determination of space172The general conventionalism of Physikalische Begriffsbildung175Critical conventionalism and the Aufbau1808Epistemology between logic and science: The essential tension183The unity of science and logical convention184Epistemology as empirical science187Epistemology as formal science191Logical empiricism197The Aufbau in the formal mode of speech1989After objectivity: Logical empiricism as philosophy of science207From epistemology to the logic of science207Toward a logical point of view213One dogma of the logic of science217The point of the logic of science225Bibliography230Index239
\ From the Publisher"...an intensive examination of virtually all of Carnap's earlier writings....I believe that the book will therefore be indispensable for all future work on Carnap." Michael Friedman, author of Kant and the Exact Sciences\ "Richardson presents a clearly written, carefully researched and well-argued interpretation of Rudolf Carnap's struggle to move beyond the neo-Kantian epistemology in which he was trained." Charles E. Kielkopf, Mathematical Reviews\ "Richardson's book is rich in telling detail that will no doubt be debated in scholarly articles...It is an added bonus that Richardson provides good reasons for optimism." The Philosophical Review\ \ \
