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.

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). The goal of this research project was to contextualize the early philosophy of Carnap, by means of three historical case studies (a-c) being supported by an edition of the early diaries of Carnap (d). (a) First case study: Cohens System in context. The German philosopher Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) was considered a paradigm case for what the project leader called German Empiricism, in his habilitation thesis. The current of German Empiricism was analysed by the example of Cohen as being bound to a specific attitude in practical philosophy and politics as well as a variety of philosophy of science being closely tied to descriptive psychology (cf. b). (b) Second case study: Non-experimental psychologies. In connection with the topic of (a) those varieties of psychology in late 19th century German thought were addressed that were implementing reconstructions of the realm of higher order mental phenomena, at a level of a psychological narrative. (c) Third case-study: The interplay of political, ethical, and formal aspects in the early works of Carnap. Here the topics were influences that came from various intellectual networks to which the younger Carnap belonged, particularly Bauhaus modernism, the Vienna Circle, the German philosophy scene of the early 20th century, and the German Youth-Movement. (d) Critical edition of early Carnaps diaries. In the first 21 months of this project, Carnaps diaries until 1935 were transcribed and proofread. The transcriptions who were delivered in three portions, starting with January 2016 were transferred to LaTeX and further edited between January 2016 and Mai 2018. A text-critical apparatus was developed, together with several indices (names, places, institutions, works) and first drafts for the scientific annotations. The edition highly benefits from the fact that Meiner Verlag Hamburg could be acquired as a publisher. The edition will be finalized in the course of the subsequent project P31716 Carnap in Context II: (Dis)continuities that is directed by the project leader again and was started in August 2018. The final version of the edition will be presumably prepared until December 2019, the edition is expected to appear both in print and as an open access web edition in 2021. The projects main further focusses were (1) the organization of five international workshops and edition of proceedings of these workshops; (2) publication of the project leaders habilitation thesis plus several papers on Carnaps Aufbau, his anti-metaphysical philosophy as well as non-cognitivism in early Logical Empiricism.