Carnap, Rudolf, 1891-1970

Born in 1891 in Ronsdorf, Germany, Rudolf Carnap was educated at the Universities of Freiburg and Jena. He studied mathematics, philosophy, and physics, completing his doctoral thesis, Der Raum, in 1921. Before immigrating to America in 1935, Carnap held positions in Vienna and Prague, where he laid the foundations for his own logical empiricism and participated actively in the discussions of the Vienna Circle. After arriving in the United States, Carnap taught at the University of Chicago until 1952, was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1952 to 1954, and held a position at UCLA from 1954 until his death in 1970. Carnap made substantial contributions in the areas of constructional theories, physicalism, the epistemological foundations of physics and mathematics, the syntactical structure of language, semantics, modal logic, and probability theory. Throughout his career he stressed the importance of formal analysis as the key to solving philosophical problems.

Philosopher.

Carnap was born May 1891 in Germany; Ph. D, Univ. of Jena (Germany), 1921; instructor in philosophy, Univ. of Vienna, 1926-31; professor, German University, Prague, 1931-35; professor, Univ. of Chicago, 1936-52; was at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1952-54; professor, UCLA, 1954-62; appointed research philosopher, UCLA, 1962-70; one of the developers of theories of symbolic logic in 1920s and 1930s; a leader in the field of logical empiricism, he was first to apply mathematical logic to scientific language; his book, Meaning and necessity (1947) was a pioneering work in the study of language and logic; member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; died Sept. 14, 1970.

Rudolf Carnap wurde am 18.5.1891 in Ronsdorf b. Barmen geboren.

Er studierte Physik, Mathematik, Philosophie und Psychologie. Zu seinen Lehrern zählten Gottlob Frege, Herman Nohl, Heinrich Rickert, Jonas Cohn, Bruno Bauch und Max Wien. 1921 wurde Carnap von der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Jena promoviert. Er übersiedelte 1926 nach seiner Itabilitation an des Wiener Universität nach Wein. 1931 übernahm Carnap an der deutschen Universität in Prag den Lehrstuhl für Naturphilosophie, den er bis zu seiner Emigration in die Vereinigten Staaten, 1935, innehatte. In den USA lehrte Carnap zunächst an der University of Chicago, dann, von 1952 bis 1954 am Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton und zuletzt an der University of California in Los Angeles. Am 14.9.1970 starb Carnap an seinem Wohnort Los Angeles.

Biography

Carnap was born May 1891 in Germany; Ph.D, University of Jena (Germany), 1921; instructor in philosophy, University of Vienna, 1926-31; professor, German University, Prague, 1931-35; professor, University of Chicago, 1936-52; was at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1952-54; professor, UCLA, 1954-62; appointed research philosopher, UCLA, 1962-70; one of the developers of theories of symbolic logic in 1920s and 1930s; a leader in the field of logical empiricism, he was first to apply mathematical logic to scientific language; his book, Meaning and Necessity (1947) was a pioneering work in the study of language and logic; member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; died September 14, 1970.