Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) is today regarded as one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. A key figure in the Vienna Circle, he emigrated for political reasons in 1935 and became a leading proponent of logical empiricism and analytical philosophy in the United States. This intellectual biography traces Carnap's life and offers a dual portrait of the twentieth century. First, it is a cultural history that draws on Carnap's connections to various contexts of his life, ranging from the German youth movement and World War I to the Vienna Circle, the Cold War, and the student movement of the 1960s. Second, it highlights Carnap's role in contrast to his philosophical colleagues and opponents, including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Otto Neurath, Hans Reichenbach, W.V.O. Quine, and Bertrand Russell.
Principal Investigator: Christian Damböck
Collaborator: Philipp Leon Bauer, Caterina Del Sordo, Patricia Grill
Funding: FWF (Projekt PAT7905424)
Cooperations: Vienna Circle Society (Friedrich Stadler), Institute Vienna Circle (Georg Schiemer), Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy [LMU Munich] (Hannes Leitgeb), Collected Works of Rudolf Carnap (Richard Creath), Bavarian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities (Eckhart Arnold), University Library System Pittsburg, Archives of Scientific Philosophy (Meiner Verlag Hamburg)