Rudolf Carnap
1891–1970 · Philosophy of Language · Prominent
Carnap belonged to the Vienna Circle. Ask him whether numbers exist and he asks back: inside which language? Questions about what there is get answers within a framework you adopt, and none at all outside it, and adopting one is a choice. Theology and metaphysics he ruled meaningless, science one language of physical things, and a moral judgement the voicing of an attitude. He was a democratic socialist and a pacifist for life.
Signature
The position Carnap is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage
- Paradox
- Pragmatic Tolerance
Positions on the 13 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- strongly leans Mechanistic (6 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Individualism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- leans Brain Only (12 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Constructed (6 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly leans Horizontal (69 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Immanence (0 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Mastery (25 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Liberalism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- War
- mildly leans Pacifism (38 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage (25 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- strongly leans Uncertain (0 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Global (75 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
7 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Carnap refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Agnosticism / Apatheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Representative Democracy
What is your ideal form of government? - End of Things
- Open Future
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience / Naturalism
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Other
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Compatibilism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Economy
- State Socialism / Welfare Capitalism
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Rational Expertise
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Representation / Conventional
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Pragmatic Tolerance
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Annihilation
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Evolved Animal
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Humanity
What is your primary bond and loyalty?