Overview We will be considering Carnap’s early work. The plan is to cover (parts of) these texts (in this order): Carnap’s Der Raum (translated as Space); completed 1921, published 1922. Russell’s external world programme, from the 1910s. Carnap’s Der logische Aufbau der Welt (translated as The logical structure of the world), completed 1926, published 1928. This is our main text Carnap’s ‘Die physikalische Sprache als Universalsprache der Wissenschaft’ (translated as ‘The unity of science’), published 1931. Carnap’s Der logische Syntax der Sprache (translated as Logical Syntax of Language), published 1934. Using these texts, we will explore: the influence of neo-Kantianism and Russell’s External World programme; and Carnap’s conventionalism, methodological solipsism, empiricism, and attitude to syntax/semantics. A note on method I want this to be a properly historical course. Carnap is not our contemporary, and his problems are not precisely our problems. We should try to understand him in his own context. Still, we are not directly concerned with the history of ideas. We will best understand Carnap, not just by considering his influencers and influence, but by engaging with him as a philosopher and assessing the arguments he offered (on their own terms). The seminars will not presuppose any familiarity with German; everything will be read in translation! However, the seminars will presuppose some familiarity with formal logic; there is no way to translate that away from Carnap. (Don’t be alarmed though; Carnap’s use of formal logic is all elementary.)