{"agent_id":"carnap","agent_name":"Rudolf Carnap","slug":"the-aufbau-and-the-constitution-system","label":"The Aufbau and the constitution system: is the 1928 constitutional project a failed phenomenalist reduction to sense data (Quine and Goodman) or a non-foundationalist neo-Kantian construction system (Friedman, Pincock, Richardson)?","topic":"The Aufbau and the constitution system","question":"Is the 1928 constitutional project a failed phenomenalist reduction to sense data (Quine and Goodman) or a non-foundationalist neo-Kantian construction system (Friedman, Pincock, Richardson)?","position":"The Aufbau is not the foundationalist reduction of all scientific concepts to sense data that Quine and Goodman read it as in the 1940s and 1950s. It is a constitution system (Konstitutionssystem) in the neo-Kantian sense: a logical demonstration that the structural relations among scientific concepts can be exhibited in a unified logical-constructive framework. The autopsychological basis is chosen as one possible basis for the constitution — the 1961 Preface to the second edition makes this explicit — but the project does not depend on the choice of basis and is not foundationalist in any sense the standard textbook tradition recognized. The constitutional method is the same method Pseudoproblems in Philosophy applied to traditional metaphysical disputes to show them to be pseudo-problems rather than substantive questions. The Friedman, Richardson, and Pincock readings have recovered what the Aufbau was actually doing.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"The Aufbau is not the foundationalist reduction of all scientific concepts to sense data that Quine and Goodman read it as in the 1940s and 1950s.","n":[]},{"t":"It is a constitution system (Konstitutionssystem) in the neo-Kantian sense: a logical demonstration that the structural relations among scientific concepts can be exhibited in a unified logical-constructive framework.","n":[]}],[{"t":"The autopsychological basis is chosen as one possible basis for the constitution — the 1961 Preface to the second edition makes this explicit — but the project does not depend on the choice of basis and is not foundationalist in any sense the standard textbook tradition recognized.","n":[1]},{"t":"The constitutional method is the same method Pseudoproblems in Philosophy applied to traditional metaphysical disputes to show them to be pseudo-problems rather than substantive questions.","n":[]},{"t":"The Friedman, Richardson, and Pincock readings have recovered what the Aufbau was actually doing.","n":[2,3]}]],"texts":"*Der logische Aufbau der Welt* (1928; English translation *The Logical Structure of the World*, Rolf George trans., 1967, bundled with *Pseudoproblems in Philosophy* 1928); the 1961 Preface to the second edition acknowledging the autopsychological basis was one choice among several possible bases; *Intellectual Autobiography* (Schilpp ed., 1963) on the Aufbau's actual aims; *Pseudoproblems in Philosophy* (1928) for the application of the constitutional method to realism/idealism and other traditional disputes. Reception: Michael Friedman, \"The Aufbau and the rejection of metaphysics\" (Cambridge Companion Ch 6) and *Reconsidering Logical Positivism* (1999); Alan W. Richardson, *Carnap's Construction of the World: The Aufbau and the Emergence of Logical Empiricism* (1998); Christopher Pincock, \"Carnap, Russell, and the external world\" (Cambridge Companion Ch 5); Thomas Mormann, \"Geometrical leitmotifs in Carnap's early philosophy\" (Cambridge Companion Ch 2); the Quine/Goodman reductionist reading (Quine's \"Two Dogmas of Empiricism\" 1951 + Goodman's \"The Significance of Der logische Aufbau der Welt\" 1963) as the misreading the revival has corrected; A. W. Carus, *Carnap in Twentieth-Century Thought: Explication as Enlightenment* (Cambridge 2007).","works":["*Der logische Aufbau der Welt* (1928","English translation *The Logical Structure of the World*, Rolf George trans., 1967, bundled with *Pseudoproblems in Philosophy* 1928)","the 1961 Preface to the second edition acknowledging the autopsychological basis was one choice among several possible bases","*Intellectual Autobiography* (Schilpp ed., 1963) on the Aufbau's actual aims","*Pseudoproblems in Philosophy* (1928) for the application of the constitutional method to realism/idealism and other traditional disputes"],"reception":"Michael Friedman, \"The Aufbau and the rejection of metaphysics\" (Cambridge Companion Ch 6) and *Reconsidering Logical Positivism* (1999); Alan W. Richardson, *Carnap's Construction of the World: The Aufbau and the Emergence of Logical Empiricism* (1998); Christopher Pincock, \"Carnap, Russell, and the external world\" (Cambridge Companion Ch 5); Thomas Mormann, \"Geometrical leitmotifs in Carnap's early philosophy\" (Cambridge Companion Ch 2); the Quine/Goodman reductionist reading (Quine's \"Two Dogmas of Empiricism\" 1951 + Goodman's \"The Significance of Der logische Aufbau der Welt\" 1963) as the misreading the revival has corrected; A. W. Carus, *Carnap in Twentieth-Century Thought: Explication as Enlightenment* (Cambridge 2007).","status":"settled-with-modern-revival-correcting-quine-goodman-misreading","era":"1891-1970","discipline":"Philosophy","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy","page":"pp. 43–44","canonical":"","quote":"Thus, we choose a system form with an \"autopsychological basis\". It will then be shown how it is possible to envisage these basic elements as unanalyzable units and nevertheless to construct those objects which are later on called the \"properties\" or \"constituents\" of these experiences through a procedure which is actually synthetic, but takes on the linguistic forms of an analysis.","label":"The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy, pp. 43–44"},{"n":2,"work":"The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy","page":"p. 137","canonical":"","quote":"Now, if science is to be objective, then it must restrict itself to statements about such structural properties, and, as we have seen earlier, it can Testrict itself to statements about structures, since all objects of knowledge are not content, but form, and since they can be represented as structural entities (cf. 15 f.).","label":"The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy, p. 137"},{"n":3,"work":"Intellectual Autobiography","page":"pp. 30–31","canonical":"","quote":"On the other hand, regarding the crit- -18- icism of traditional metaphysics, in the *Aufbau* I merely refrained from taking sides; I added that, if one proceeds from the discussion of language forms to that of the corresponding metaphysical theses about the reality or unreality of some kind of entities, he steps beyond the bounds of science.","label":"Intellectual Autobiography, pp. 30–31"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"verifiability-and-the-elimination-of-metaphysics","label":"Verifiability and the elimination of metaphysics: are metaphysical pseudo-propositions like Heidegger's 'Das Nichts nichtet' meaningless because they violate the logical syntax of language, and does the 1936 Testability and Meaning refinement deepen or recant the 1932 attack?"},{"slug":"the-principle-of-tolerance-and-logical-syntax","label":"The Principle of Tolerance and logical syntax: is philosophy proposing syntactical rules rather than philosophical theses, and is 'In logic, there are no morals' the framing commitment of the mature position?"},{"slug":"analyticity-semantics-and-internal-external-questions","label":"Analyticity, semantics, and internal/external questions: do the analytic/synthetic distinction in Meaning and Necessity and the internal/external distinction in ESO survive Quine's attack in 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism' (1951)?"},{"slug":"inductive-logic-and-confirmation-theory","label":"Inductive logic and confirmation theory: is probability logically definable as objective-Bayesian c-functions (Logical Foundations of Probability 1950, Continuum 1952, the late Basic System), against subjectivist Bayesianism (Ramsey, de Finetti, the Lewis-Jeffrey tradition)?"}]}