Carnap on Analyticity and Existence
A Clarification, Defense, and Development of Quine’s Reading of Carnap’s Views on Ontology
Abstract
Does Carnap’s treatment of philosophical questions about existence, such as “Are there numbers?” and “Are there physical objects?”, depend on his analytic–synthetic distinction? If so, in what way? I answer these questions by clarifying, defending, and developing the reading of Carnap’s paper “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology” that W. V. Quine proposes, with little justification or explanation, in his paper “On Carnap’s Views on Ontology”. The primary methodological value of studying Quine’s reading of “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology” is that it prompts us to look for, and helps us to see the significance of, passages by Carnap that reveal the logical foundations of his views on ontology. Guided in this way by Quine’s reading, I show that (1) in “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology” Carnap’s preferred treatment of philosophical questions relies on paraphrasing them so that their answers are immediately obvious elementary logical truths, and are therefore, by his standards, trivially analytic; and (2) in its most general form, Carnap’s treatment of philosophical questions about existence depends on his controversial view that the analytic truths of a language L may include sentences that are not elementary logical truths, but that are nevertheless, by Carnap’s standards, analytic-in-L simply because we have stipulated that they are to be among the “meaning postulates” of L.
References
Alspector-Kelly, Marc, 2001. “On Quine on Carnap on Ontology.” Philosophical Studies 102: 93–122.
Bird, Graham H., 1995. “Internal and External Questions.” Erkenntnis 42: 41–64.
Blatti, Stephan and Sandra Lapointe, eds., 2016. Ontology after Carnap. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carnap, Rudolf, 1928. Scheinprobleme in der Philosophie: Das Fremdpsychische und der Realismusstreit. Berlin: Weltkreis. Translated as Pseudoproblems in Philosophy: the Heteropsychological and the Realism Controversy, in Carnap (1967), pp. 301–43.
Carnap, Rudolf, 1931. “Überwindung der Metaphysik durch logische Analyse der Sprache.” Erkenntnis 2: 219–41. Translated by Arthur Pap as “The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language”, in Logical Positivism, edited by A. J. Ayer, pp. 60–81. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959.
———, 1934. Die Aufgabe der Wissenschaftslogik. (Einheitswissenschaft. Schriften hrsg. von Otto Neurath in Verbindung mit Rudolf Carnap und Hans Hahn. Heft 3). Vienna: Verlag Gerold & Co. Translated as “The Task of the Logic of Science”, in Unified Science: the Vienna Circle Monographs Series, edited by Brian McGuinness, pp. 46–66. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987.
———, 1936–37. “Testability and Meaning.” Parts I and II. Philosophy of Science III (1936): 419–471, and IV (1937): 1–40.
———, 1937. The Logic Syntax of Language. (An expanded version of what was originally published in German in 1934.) Translated by A. Smeaton. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.
———, 1939. “Foundations of Logic and Mathematics.” International Encyclopedia of Unified Science 1(3). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———, 1942. Introduction to Semantics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
———, 1950. “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology.” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4: 20–40. Reprinted, with changes, as Supplement A in Carnap (1956), pp. 205–21. (References are to the reprinted version.)
———, 1952. “Meaning Postulates.” Philosophical Studies 3: 65–73.
———, 1956. Meaning and Necessity, second edition. (First edition 1947.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Carnap, Rudolf, 1958. “Beobachtungssprache und theoretische Sprache.” Dialectica 12: 236–48. Translated by Herbert Bonhert as “Observation Language and Theoretical Language” in Hintikka (1975), pp. 75–85. (References are to the 1975 publication.)
———, 1962. Logical Foundations of Probability, second edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———, 1963a. “Intellectual Autobiography.” In Schilpp (1963), pp. 3–84.
———, 1963b. “My Views on Ontological Problems of Existence.” In Schilpp (1963), pp. 868–74.
———, 1967. The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy, translated by Rolf A. George. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———, 1990 [1952]. “Quine on Analyticity.” In Creath (1990), pp. 427–32.
———, 1995. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, edited by Martin Gardner. Mineola, New York: Dover.
Creath, Richard, 1990. Dear Carnap, Dear Van: the Quine-Carnap Correspondence and Related Work. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ebbs, Gary, 2017. “Carnap on Ontology.” In Quine, Carnap, and Putnam on Methods of Inquiry, pp. 33–54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eklund, Matti, 2013. “Carnap’s Metaontology.” Noûs 47: 229–49.
———, 2016. “Carnap’s Legacy for the Contemporary Metaontological Debate.” In Blatti and Lapointe (2016), pp. 165–89.
Gallois, Andre, 1998. “Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Vol. 72: 263–83.
Goldfarb, Warren, 1996. “The Philosophy of Mathematics in Early Positivism.” In Origins of Logical Empiricism. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 16, edited by R. Giere and A. Richardson, pp. 213–30. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Haack, Susan, 1976. “Some Preliminaries to Ontology.” Journal of Philosophical Logic 5: 457–74.
Hilbert, David, 1902. The Foundations of Geometry, in an authorized English translation by E. J. Townsend. Chicago: Open Court.
Hintikka, Jaakko, ed., 1975. Rudolf Carnap, Logical Empiricist: Materials and Perspectives. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Lavers, Gregory, 2015. “Carnap, Quine, Quantification and Ontology.” In Quantifiers, Quantifiers, and Quantifiers: Themes in Logic, Metaphysics and Language, edited by A. Torza, pp. 271–300. New York: Springer.
Price, Huw, 2009. “Metaphysics after Carnap: The Ghost Who Walks?” In Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology, edited by David J. Chalmers, David Manley and Ryan Wasserman, pp. 320–46. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Quine, W. V., 1943. “Notes on Existence and Necessity.” Journal of Philosophy 40: 113–27.
———, 1951. “On Carnap’s Views on Ontology.” Philosophical Studies 2: 65–72.
———, 1953a. “Meaning and Existential Inference.” In Quine (1953c), pp. 160–67.
———, 1953b. “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” In Quine (1953c), pp. 20–46.
———, 1953c. From a Logical Point of View. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Quine, W. V., 1956. “Unification of Universes in Set Theory.” Journal of Symbolic Logic 21: 267–79.
———, 1969. “Existence and Quantification.” In Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, pp. 91–113. New York: Columbia University Press.
———, 1975. “Homage to Carnap.” In Hintikka (1975), pp. xxiv–xxvii.
———, 1986. Philosophy of Logic, second, revised edition. (First edition 1970.) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Schilpp, Paul A., ed., 1963. The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap (Library of Living Philosophers 11). La Salle, Ill.: Open Court.
Shaw, James, 2009. Nonsense, Truth, and Ineffability. PhD Dissertation. Harvard University.
Soames, Scott, 2003. The Dawn of Analysis: Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
———, 2009. “Ontology, Analyticity, and Meaning: the Quine-Carnap Dispute.” In Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology, edited by David J. Chalmers, David Manley and Ryan Wasserman, pp. 424–43. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Sober, Eliot, 2000. “Quine’s Two Dogmas.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 74: 237–80.
Thomasson, Amie, 2015. Ontology Made Easy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———, 2016. “Carnap and the Prospects for Easy Ontology.” In Blatti and Lapointe (2016), pp. 122–44.
Yablo, Stephen, 1998. “Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 72: 229–61.
Bird, Graham H., 1995. “Internal and External Questions.” Erkenntnis 42: 41–64.
Blatti, Stephan and Sandra Lapointe, eds., 2016. Ontology after Carnap. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carnap, Rudolf, 1928. Scheinprobleme in der Philosophie: Das Fremdpsychische und der Realismusstreit. Berlin: Weltkreis. Translated as Pseudoproblems in Philosophy: the Heteropsychological and the Realism Controversy, in Carnap (1967), pp. 301–43.
Carnap, Rudolf, 1931. “Überwindung der Metaphysik durch logische Analyse der Sprache.” Erkenntnis 2: 219–41. Translated by Arthur Pap as “The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language”, in Logical Positivism, edited by A. J. Ayer, pp. 60–81. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959.
———, 1934. Die Aufgabe der Wissenschaftslogik. (Einheitswissenschaft. Schriften hrsg. von Otto Neurath in Verbindung mit Rudolf Carnap und Hans Hahn. Heft 3). Vienna: Verlag Gerold & Co. Translated as “The Task of the Logic of Science”, in Unified Science: the Vienna Circle Monographs Series, edited by Brian McGuinness, pp. 46–66. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987.
———, 1936–37. “Testability and Meaning.” Parts I and II. Philosophy of Science III (1936): 419–471, and IV (1937): 1–40.
———, 1937. The Logic Syntax of Language. (An expanded version of what was originally published in German in 1934.) Translated by A. Smeaton. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.
———, 1939. “Foundations of Logic and Mathematics.” International Encyclopedia of Unified Science 1(3). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———, 1942. Introduction to Semantics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
———, 1950. “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology.” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4: 20–40. Reprinted, with changes, as Supplement A in Carnap (1956), pp. 205–21. (References are to the reprinted version.)
———, 1952. “Meaning Postulates.” Philosophical Studies 3: 65–73.
———, 1956. Meaning and Necessity, second edition. (First edition 1947.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Carnap, Rudolf, 1958. “Beobachtungssprache und theoretische Sprache.” Dialectica 12: 236–48. Translated by Herbert Bonhert as “Observation Language and Theoretical Language” in Hintikka (1975), pp. 75–85. (References are to the 1975 publication.)
———, 1962. Logical Foundations of Probability, second edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———, 1963a. “Intellectual Autobiography.” In Schilpp (1963), pp. 3–84.
———, 1963b. “My Views on Ontological Problems of Existence.” In Schilpp (1963), pp. 868–74.
———, 1967. The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy, translated by Rolf A. George. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———, 1990 [1952]. “Quine on Analyticity.” In Creath (1990), pp. 427–32.
———, 1995. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, edited by Martin Gardner. Mineola, New York: Dover.
Creath, Richard, 1990. Dear Carnap, Dear Van: the Quine-Carnap Correspondence and Related Work. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ebbs, Gary, 2017. “Carnap on Ontology.” In Quine, Carnap, and Putnam on Methods of Inquiry, pp. 33–54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eklund, Matti, 2013. “Carnap’s Metaontology.” Noûs 47: 229–49.
———, 2016. “Carnap’s Legacy for the Contemporary Metaontological Debate.” In Blatti and Lapointe (2016), pp. 165–89.
Gallois, Andre, 1998. “Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Vol. 72: 263–83.
Goldfarb, Warren, 1996. “The Philosophy of Mathematics in Early Positivism.” In Origins of Logical Empiricism. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 16, edited by R. Giere and A. Richardson, pp. 213–30. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Haack, Susan, 1976. “Some Preliminaries to Ontology.” Journal of Philosophical Logic 5: 457–74.
Hilbert, David, 1902. The Foundations of Geometry, in an authorized English translation by E. J. Townsend. Chicago: Open Court.
Hintikka, Jaakko, ed., 1975. Rudolf Carnap, Logical Empiricist: Materials and Perspectives. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Lavers, Gregory, 2015. “Carnap, Quine, Quantification and Ontology.” In Quantifiers, Quantifiers, and Quantifiers: Themes in Logic, Metaphysics and Language, edited by A. Torza, pp. 271–300. New York: Springer.
Price, Huw, 2009. “Metaphysics after Carnap: The Ghost Who Walks?” In Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology, edited by David J. Chalmers, David Manley and Ryan Wasserman, pp. 320–46. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Quine, W. V., 1943. “Notes on Existence and Necessity.” Journal of Philosophy 40: 113–27.
———, 1951. “On Carnap’s Views on Ontology.” Philosophical Studies 2: 65–72.
———, 1953a. “Meaning and Existential Inference.” In Quine (1953c), pp. 160–67.
———, 1953b. “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” In Quine (1953c), pp. 20–46.
———, 1953c. From a Logical Point of View. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Quine, W. V., 1956. “Unification of Universes in Set Theory.” Journal of Symbolic Logic 21: 267–79.
———, 1969. “Existence and Quantification.” In Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, pp. 91–113. New York: Columbia University Press.
———, 1975. “Homage to Carnap.” In Hintikka (1975), pp. xxiv–xxvii.
———, 1986. Philosophy of Logic, second, revised edition. (First edition 1970.) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Schilpp, Paul A., ed., 1963. The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap (Library of Living Philosophers 11). La Salle, Ill.: Open Court.
Shaw, James, 2009. Nonsense, Truth, and Ineffability. PhD Dissertation. Harvard University.
Soames, Scott, 2003. The Dawn of Analysis: Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
———, 2009. “Ontology, Analyticity, and Meaning: the Quine-Carnap Dispute.” In Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology, edited by David J. Chalmers, David Manley and Ryan Wasserman, pp. 424–43. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Sober, Eliot, 2000. “Quine’s Two Dogmas.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 74: 237–80.
Thomasson, Amie, 2015. Ontology Made Easy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———, 2016. “Carnap and the Prospects for Easy Ontology.” In Blatti and Lapointe (2016), pp. 122–44.
Yablo, Stephen, 1998. “Does Ontology Rest on a Mistake?” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 72: 229–61.
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