Caterina del Sordo

December 1st, 2024 until February 28th, 2025

Affiliation: University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU, Spain)

Research for a study about:

Varieties of Carnapian Deflationism

Carnapian deflationism, whether grounded in language, concepts, or experience, avoids constructing ad hoc theories to address traditional philosophical problems. The language- and concept-based variant draws on the later Carnap, particularly on “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology” and “The Logical Foundations of Probability.” It emphasizes the notions of linguistic frameworks and explication, laying the foundation for developments in language planning and conceptual engineering.
In contrast, experience-based deflationism finds its roots in the early Carnap, notably in “Der logische Aufbau der Welt.” This variant promotes empirically oriented epistemologies and a rejection of metaphysics, providing a basis for contemporary scientific reevaluations of Carnap’s idea of rational reconstruction.
This project supports an experience-based Carnapian deflationism that addresses and resolves criticisms often directed at its language- and concept-based counterpart.

Lecture

Quasi-analysis vs. Explication. The Early Carnap on Conceptual Engineering

Philosophy of Science Colloquium Talk

Date: Janury 16, 2025

Time: 16h45 - 18h15

Abstract:

This paper calls into question the thesis that early Carnap’s rational reconstruction arises as a proto-version of his later and more mature idea of explication. The aim of the paper is to show that (1) according to the criteria of similarity, exactness, and fruitfulness, rational reconstruction qualifies as an explication, and that (2) according to their explanatory preconditions, rational reconstruction and explication emerge as processes of conceptual generalization and specification, respectively. To support (1), I consider rational reconstruction, in terms of early Carnap’s quasi-analysis, as a representational theory of mathematical structures; to support (2), I rely on formal concept analysis as a common framework for comparing conceptual constructions.