Carnap in Context IV: Toward an Intellectual Biography

Rudolf Carnap (18911970) is considered a classic of 20th century analytic philosophy and philosophy of science. This applies both to his work as a member of the Vienna Circle (1926 1935) and to his time in the USA (19361970). Building on four previous FWF projects that examined different contexts and stages of Carnap`s life this project will create the first comprehensive intellectual biography of Carnap, using the diaries as the main biographical source. Preparations for the intellectual biography of Carnap in this project involve three research tasks, all of which will feed directly into and support the development of the manuscript of Carnap`s intellectual biography. (A) three case studies will investigate open questions related to the intellectual biography project, supported by (B) a critical edition of Carnap`s major early work, The Logical Structure of the World (Aufbau), and (C) further steps in a long-term edition project of Carnap`s Nachlass, including transcriptions from shorthand and work on the digital humanities tool VALEP. On the basis of preparatory tasks (AC), which will be carried out mainly in the first 2.5 years of the project, the manuscript of the intellectual biography will be completed in the second part. Carnap is regarded as a representative of twentieth-century thought who, with his consistent defense of the Enlightenment and scientific humanism, represents a central counterweight to initially more successful contemporaries such as Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Horkheimer, and Adorno, whose philosophy tends to lead to a negative attitude toward the Enlightenment and science. This raises several research questions related to the different modules/phases of the biography. How did Carnap inherit the scientific and enlightened approach? How did Carnap`s Protestant and German-influenced worldview merge with the worldviews of the Vienna Circle and especially Otto Neurath? How was Carnap`s thought transferred and transformed by his migration to the United States? In what ways did it converge, conflict, influence, and be influenced by the American philosophical scene, including American pragmatism? This research project brings together the results of four previous research projects on different aspects of Carnaps life and work and delivers the first comprehensive intellectual biography of one of the most important philosophers of the 20 th century, based on previously inaccessible material such as Carnaps diaries. This will bring new insights into less-studied periods of Carnaps life. Editorial tasks in this project include a new critical edition of the Aufbau, transcriptions of important shorthand sources and further development of the database VALEP.