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Birth of Rudolf Carnap
In Ronsdorf, Germany on May 18th, 1891 Rudolf Carnap was born into a protestant family, his father was the owner of a ribbon making factory until he died when Carnap was only four years old. As for his mother, she was a teacher and aspired to be an author and is believed to be one of Carnap's earliest influences. After his father's death, the family decided to move to the city of Barmen where he discovered his love for Latin and mathematics. -
Received Doctorates Degree
Rudolf Carnap decided that he wanted to pursue a career in physics and philosophy, so in 1909 when his family moved to Jena he enrolled in university where he attended many lectures which piqued Carnaps's interest. After serving as a soldier in World War 1 Carnap returned to complete his education and obtained his doctorate degree. -
Invitation Into The Vienna Circle
Moritz Schlick was introduced to Carnap by another philosopher by the name of Hans Reichenbach and after speaking among themselves Schlick realized that he and Carnap were like-minded individuals, so in 1926 Carnap was presented with a position at the University at Vienna and joined The Vienna Circle where he became a great influence for the 'Logical Positivism' also known as Logical Empiricism’ movement. -
The Logical Structure of the World
In 1928 Carnap published what is considered one of his greatest works known as Der logische Aufbau der Welt (The Logical Structure of the World) where Carnap takes the methodological solipsism approach and describes how empirical facts (whether they were actual or possible) were defined through the aspects of immediate experience. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Carnap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27wrZpGZcBg -
Arrival to The United States
As the rise of pro-Nazi propaganda began to spread at an alarming rate in Europe Carnap decided to move to the United States in 1935 where he occupied a position in the University of Chicago's teaching staff up until 1952. During his time in the United States Carnap began to make revisions to his previous thesis's into a more liberal perspective especially since many other philosophers presented faults within logical empiricism in which he graciously acknowledged and adjusted accordingly. -
The Decline of Logical Positivism
The early 1950s through the late 1960s is when Logical Empiricism was faced with great opposition from opposing views. The most notable being Karl Popper and his thesis the Principle of Falsification. Popper's theory established that results from theories must be tested against the facts and if the theory stands it is held true until proven otherwise. Which invalidated Carnap's approach.
https://philosophynow.org/issues/118/Rudolf_Carnap_1891-1970 -
Death of Carnap
Towards the end of Carnap's life, he one of the most influential philosophers of logical positivism, but he was also a father of four children -from his first marriage- and a loving husband to his second wife Elizabeth Ina Stögren until she passed in 1964. Even as his health continued to decline due to illness he did not waiver his belief of logical empiricism even up to his last dying breath in September 14, 1970, in Santa Monica, California.
