Wiener and Carnap

a missed opportunity?

Sébastien Gandon

pp. 31-50

in: Christian Damböck (ed), Influences on the Aufbau, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

This article aims, first, at presenting Norbert Wiener's reception and extension of Russell's constructionalist program. The second goal is to draw a comparison between Wiener's early papers and Carnap's Aufbau. I will contend that the two men agreed on many important points. Both used Russell's method of construction as a way of clarifying concepts; both opposed construction to axiomatization; both rejected Russell's conception of sense-data in favor of a holisitic sensory basis. I suggest, in the conclusion, that these convergences should lead us to downplay the importance of the neo-Kantian context in the intellectual formation of the young Carnap.

Cited authors

Kant Immanuel

Carnap Rudolf

Wiener Norbert