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Birth.
Born May 18th 1891 in Ronsdorf Germany. -
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Universities of Jena and Freiburg im Breisgau
Studied mathematics, physics and philosophy at Universities of Jena and Freiburg im Breisgau. Attended lectures of Gottlob Frege, later recognized as the greatest logician of the 19th century, at University of Jena. Frege's lectures greatly inspired Carnap. -
Graduated from University of Jena
After serving in WW1 Carnap graduated with a doctorate from University of Jena and a dissertation on the concept of space. -
Joined the Vienna Circle
Became a major member of the Vienna Circle after being invited by founder Moritz Shlick. Vienna Circle was a group of early 20th century philosophers who sought to re-conceptualize empiricism. Developed initial ideas of logical positivism and logical empiricism. Leading members helped to develop methods and theories of contemporary mathematics and science. -
Published Der logische Aufbau der Welt
The Logical Structure of the World -
Published Abriss der Logistik
On symbolic and mathematical logic -
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Erkenntnis periodical
Founded this periodical with the philosopher of science Hans Reichenbach of Berlin Germany. -
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Professor of Natural Science at German University of Prague
Here he developed a liberal version of empiricism and argued that empirical sciences cannot be totally defined in purely experiential terms however they can be at least partially defined via reduction sentences, operational definitions and observation sentences where truth can be verified via direct observation. Although this does not provide a strict proof or strict disproof it more or less provides a strong confirmation for an empirical statement. -
Published The Logical Syntax of Language
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Moved from Germany to the United States
Although Carnap was not Jewish, he was under threat of persecution from the Nazis. His social Democratic political beliefs put him at risk. -
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Published Testability and Meaning
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Professor of Philosophy at University of Chicago
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Published International Encyclopedia of Unified Science
joined with sociologist Otto Neurath and philosopher Charles W. Morris to put together this work. -
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Visiting professor at Harvard University
Here he was an active participant in philosophy of science discussion groups with Bertrand Russel, Alfred Tarski and W.V.O Quine. -
Published Meaning and Necessity
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Published Logical Foundations of Probability
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Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study
Here Carnap continued his work on probability theory. -
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University of California - Los Angeles
Worked as a professor here and continued to develop his theory of inductive logic. -
Death
Carnap died on Sept 14th 1970 in Santa Monica California -