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Notes by RBJon

The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap

by J. Alberto Coffa

IntroIntroduction
Part IThe Semantic Tradition
Chapter 1Kant, analysis, and pure intuition
Chapter 2Bolzano and the birth of semantics
Chapter 3Geometry, pure intuition, and the a priori
Chapter 4Frege's semantics and the a priori in arithmetic
Chapter 5Meaning and Ontology
Chapter 6On Denoting
Chapter 7Logic in Transition
Chapter 8A logico-philosophical treatise
Part IIVienna, 1925-1935
Chapter 9Schlick before Vienna
Chapter 10Philosophers on relativity
Chapter 11Carnap before Vienna
Chapter 12Scientific idealism and semantic idealism
Chapter 13Return of Ludwig Wittgenstein
Chapter 14A priori knowledge and the constitution of meaning
Chapter 15The road to syntax
Chapter 16Syntax and truth
Chapter 17Semantic conventionalism and the factuality of meaning
Chapter 18The problem of induction: theories
Chapter 19The problem of experience: protocols

Introduction

The "primary topic" of this book is the philosophy of the Vienna Circle in the decade from 1925 to 1935. The topic is addressed in the second of the two parts of the book, the first of which sets the context by describing the progression of the "semantic tradition" through the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries.

The introduction puts this account of the semantic tradition in context. The author discerns three major currents in epistemology in the nineteenth century, distinguished by their attitudes toward the a priori. These traditions were:

positivism
which denied that there were any a priori truths
Kantianism
which explained the a priori using "pure intuition" (the Copernican turn)
the semantic tradition
which is characterised by a particular concern for meaning, and which accepts the a priori while rejecting Kants explanation of how a priori knowledge is possible.

Part 1 - The semantic tradition

Chapter 1 - Kant, analysis, and pure intuition

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