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CARNAP BROUGHT HOME: THE ELIMINATION OF THE METAPHYSICAL NEED
Abstract
Drawing on recent research on Carnaps academic schooling in neo-Kantianism and Diltheys Lebensphilosophie, this paper attempts to reconsider the precise objectives of the anti-metaphysical program of Carnap and the Vienna Circle. It argues that while the elimination of metaphysical truth through logical analysis of language has become a landmark moment in the history of twentieth-century Western philosophy, far less scholarly attention has been given to Carnaps elimination of the metaphysical need. This paper seeks to address this lacuna by presenting two arguments that so far have remained largely underdeveloped. First, it shows that Carnaps interpretation of the expressive function of metaphysics (and its relegation to the domains of art and poetry) should be viewed in sharp contrast with the vital philosophical role played by theories of the metaphysical need in neo-Kantianism and Diltheys thought. Second, it shows that Carnaps philosophical elimination of the metaphysical need (and its influence on logical positivism) holds the key to a better understanding of the divide in present-day philosophy between analytic metaphysics and continental post-metaphysical thought. The first argument runs as follows. Carnap brought home, as the title of an important book on Carnap puts it, does not mean bringing him back to Vienna, but to Jena. As recent research has established, Carnap did not only come under the influence of Frege during his student years at the University of Jena, but was deeply affected by neo-Kantianism and Diltheys Lebensphilosophie as well. While Freges inspiration may have greatly contributed to his later linguistic analysis of metaphysics, the latter influences are crucial to fully understand his later elimination of the metaphysical need, for both neo-Kantianism (in its systematic philosophy of values) and Dilthey (in his systematic theory of worldviews) had constructed elaborate theories of the metaphysical need, crediting that need with a vital function in new forms of philosophical thought. The second argument focuses on the fairly paradoxical divergence in our times between the analytic and the continental tradition of philosophy. Analytic philosophy, originating from a radical critique of metaphysics, is currently developing a flourishing discipline of analytic metaphysics. Continental philosophy, by contrast, while closely communicating with the history of metaphysics in developing different variants of hermeneutic and phenomenological thought, is displaying a deep sensitivity to the problematic nature of metaphysical thinking. It is argued that this paradox may be partly resolved by focusing on the remaining differences between the analytic rejection of the metaphysical need and the enduring response to it in continental philosophy. The combination of both arguments may contribute to a more refined assessment of the aims and consequences of the anti-metaphysical program of logical positivism.
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References15
Theodore Sider, “Introduction,” In Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics, edited by Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, and Dean W. Zimmerman, Oxford: Blackwell, p 6, 2008.
Gottfried Gabriel, “Introduction: Carnap Brought Home,” In Carnap Brought Home: The View from Jena, edited by Steve Awodey and Carsten Klein, Chicago: Open Court, p 6, 2004.
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Friedman, A Parting of the Ways, pp 70-71.
Gabriel, “Introduction: Carnap Brought Home,” p 8.
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For an extensive discussion, see: Sander Griffioen, “Rickert, Windelband, Hegel und das Weltanschauungsbedürfnis,” In Sinn, Wert, Geltung. Neukantianische Motive in der modernen Kulturphilosophie, herausgegeben von Christian Krijnen und Ernst Wolfgang Orth, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, pp 57-72, 1998.
Friedrich Albert Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart. Erstes und zweites Buch, Berlin: Hofenberg, p 534, 2015. Cf. Gabriel, pp 10-11.
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Wilhelm Dilthey, Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften. Versuch einer Grundlegung für das Studium der Gesellschaft und der Geschichte. Erster Band, Stuttgart: Teubner, pp 125-26, 1990. For a detailed analysis, see Koenraad Verrycken, “Diltheys metafysicakritiek”, In Wilhelm Dilthey. De onmogelijkheid van de metafysica, Budel: Damon, pp 22-23, 2010.
Jean Grondin, Introduction to Metaphysics: From Parmenides to Levinas. New York: Columbia University Press, p. 196, 2012.
Rudolf Carnap, The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy, translated by Rolf A. George, Chicago: Open Court, p xvii, 2003 (we have used the modified translation by M. Friedman).
Rudolf Carnap, “The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language,” translated by Arthur Pap, In Logical Positivism, edited by A. J. Ayer, New York: The Free Press, p 78-80, 1959.
Carnap, “The Elimination of Metaphysics”, p 80.
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