The course is conducted in Chinese but uses English textbook。

Rudolf Carnap was one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. He was famous as being one of the founders of logical positivism (also known as logical empiricism), and was extremely influential in many areas of philosophy, including the philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, logic and semantics, and even metaphysics. In recent years, there has been a surprising revival of Carnapian philosophy concerning two issues: his deflationism in meta-ontology and his method of explication as a form of conceptual engineering. In this course, we will be studying the major works of Carnap. We will especially focus on his influential books, selecting reading materials from The Logical Structure of the World, The Unity of Science, The Logical Syntax of Language, Introduction to Semantics, and Meaning and Necessity. We will also study his influential papers, including “The Elimination of Metaphysics,” “Testability and Meaning,” and “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology.”

By the end of the course students are expected to 1. have a comprehensive understanding of the central themes of Carnap’s philosophy; and 2. develop their own critical views about these issues.

Carnap, Rudolf, (1928 [1967]), Der logische Aufbau der Welt, Berlin: Weltkreis. Translated into English as The Logical Structure of the World, Rolf A. George (trans.), Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1967. Carnap, Rudolf, (1932 [1959]), “Uberwindung der Metaphysik durch logische Analyse der Sprache,” Erkenntnis, 2: 219–241. Translated by Arthur Pap as “The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language,” in A.J. Ayer, ed., Logical Positivism. The Library of Philosophical Movements. New York: The Free Press, 1959, pp. 60–81. Carnap, Rudolf, (1932 [1934]), “Die physikalische Sprache als Universalsprache der Wissenschaft”, Erkenntnis, 2: 432–465. Translated into English as Unity of Science, Max Black (trans.), London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1934. Carnap, Rudolf, (1934 [1937]), Logische Syntax der Sprache, Vienna: Springer. Translated by Amethe Smeaton as The Logical Syntax of Language, London: Routledge, 1937. Carnap, Rudolf, (1936–37), “Testability and Meaning,” Philosophy of Science, 3(4): 419–471; 4(1): 1–40. Carnap, Rudolf, (1942), Introduction to Semantics, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Carnap, Rudolf, (1947 [1956]), Meaning and Necessity, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Carnap, Rudolf, (1950 [1956]), “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology,” Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 4(11): 20–40. Reprinted in Carnap 1956: 205–221. Carnap, Rudolf, (1952 [1956]), “Meaning Postulates”, Philosophical Studies, 3(5): 65–73. Reprinted in Carnap 1956: 222–229.

Blatti, Stephan and Sandra Lapointe (eds.), 2016, Ontology after Carnap, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Friedman, Michael and Richard Creath (eds.), 2007, The Cambridge Companion to Carnap, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Potter, Michael, 2000, Reason’s Nearest Kin: Philosophies of Arithmetic from Kant to Carnap, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Richardson, Alan W., 1998, Carnap’s Construction of the World: The Aufbau and the Emergence of Logical Empiricism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schilpp, Paul Arthur (ed.), 1963, The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, LaSalle, IL: Open Court. Wagner, Pierre (ed.), 2009, Carnap’s Logical Syntax of Language, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.