Rudolf Carnap's inferentialism

Jaroslav Peregrin

pp. 97-109

in: Radek Schuster (ed), The Vienna circle in Czechoslovakia, Berlin, Springer, 2020

Abstract

Carnap's development from the 'syntactic phase" of his Logical Syntax of Language to the 'semantic phase" of his Introduction to Semantics and Meaning and Necessity is often seen as an awakening from a dogmatic semantics-blindness. In this paper we look at the development from a different visual angle, indicating that seeing it as simply a progress might be misleading. We point out that from the viewpoint of many contemporary philosophers it is no longer clear that meaning is not a matter of 'syntax" in Carnap's original sense of the word. Aside of this, Carnap's contribution to the understanding of rules, and especially inferential rules, with respect to syntax, semantics, and language in general, was profound. Therefore, we suggest that Carnap's investigations from his 'syntactic phase" are much more interesting than even the later Carnap himself would have appreciated.

Cited authors

Carnap Rudolf