The Cambridge Companion to Carnap

Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) is increasingly regarded as one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. He was one of the leading figures of the logical empiricist movement associated with the Vienna Circle and a central figure in the analytic tradition more generally. He made major contributions to philosophy of science and philosophy of logic, and, perhaps most importantly, to our understanding of the nature of philosophy as a discipline. In this volume a team of contributors explores the major themes of his philosophy and discusses his relationship with the Vienna Circle and with philosophers such as Frege, Husserl, Russell, and Quine. New readers will find this the most convenient and accessible guide to Carnap currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Carnap.

• A unique compilation of cutting edge scholarship on Carnap • Reflects the recent re-evaluation of Carnap’s contribution to twentieth century philosophy • Discusses how Carnap shaped our understanding of philosophy as a discipline

Preface: Carnap’s posthumous career Richard Creath; Introduction: Carnap’s revolution in philosophy Michael Friedman; 1. Carnap’s intellectual development A. W. Carus; 2. Geometrical leifmotifs in Carnap’s early philosophy Thomas Mormann; 3. Carnap and Frege Gottfried Gabriel; 4. Carnap and Husserl Thomas Ryckman; 5. Carnap, Russell, and the external world Christopher Pincock; 6. The Aufbau and the rejection of metaphysics Michael Friedman; 7. Carnap and the Vienna Circle: rational reconstructionism refined Thomas Uebel; 8. Carnap and modern logic Erich H. Reck; 9. Tolerance and logicism: logical syntax and the philosophy of mathematics Thomas Ricketts; 10. Carnap’s quest for analyticity: the studies in semantics Steve Awodey; 11. Carnap on the rational reconstruction of scientific theories William Demopoulos; 12. Carnap on probability and induction S. L. Zabell; 13. Carnapian pragmatism Alan Richardson; 14. Quine’s challenge to Carnap Richard Creath.