Rudolf Carnap 1891 – 1970
Rudolf Carnap was a German-born philosopher and a leading figure of the Vienna Circle and of logical empiricism. His Logical Structure of the World attempted to construct all scientific concepts from elementary experiences using the logic of Russell and Whitehead, while his Logical Syntax of Language proposed that philosophical questions are best understood as questions about the syntax of scientific languages. After emigrating to the United States in 1935, he developed an inductive logic of confirmation and a tolerant pluralism about formal frameworks. His work shaped the course of twentieth-century philosophy of science.
Key facts
- Nationality
- German-American
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Rudolf Carnap:
“In logic, there are no morals. Everyone is at liberty to build his own logic, that is, his own form of language, as he wishes.”
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Attributed to Rudolf Carnap:
“Philosophy is to be replaced by the logic of science, that is to say, by the logical analysis of the concepts and sentences of the sciences.”
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Attributed to Rudolf Carnap:
“What is presented as metaphysical assertion is in reality the expression of a feeling for life.”
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Attributed to Rudolf Carnap:
“Let us be cautious in making assertions and critical in examining them, but tolerant in permitting linguistic forms.”
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Attributed to Rudolf Carnap:
“Science is the systematized knowledge of universal laws connecting observations.”