The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap: To the Vienna Station [Paperback]

J. Alberto Coffa (Author), Linda Wessels (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521447070 | ISBN-13: 978-0521447072 | Publication Date: January 29, 1993

This major publication is a history of the semantic tradition in philosophy from the early nineteenth century through its incarnation in the work of the Vienna Circle, the group of logical positivists that emerged in the years 1925-1935 in Vienna who were characterised by a strong commitment to empiricism, a high regard for science, and a conviction that modern logic is the primary tool of analytic philosophy. In the first part of the book, Alberto Coffa traces the roots of logical positivism in a semantic tradition that arose in opposition to Kant's theory that a priori knowledge is based on pure intuition and the constitutive powers of the mind. In Part II, Coffa chronicles the development of this tradition by members and associates of the Vienna Circle. Much of Coffa's analysis draws on the unpublished notes and correspondence of many philosophers. The book, however, is not merely a history of the semantic tradition from Kant 'to the Vienna Station'. Coffa also critically reassesses the role of semantic notions in understanding the ground of a priori knowledge and its relation to empirical knowledge and questions the turn the tradition has taken since Vienna.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'! throughout there is a stimulating and reassuring atmosphere of good judgement and good intellectual taste, not least in the choice of its subject, which is the most profound and exciting revolution in the history of human thought on the nature of logical and mathematical truth'. J. D. Kenyon, Times Higher Education Supplement

Book Description

This major publication is a history of the semantic tradition in philosophy from the early nineteenth century through its incarnation in the work of the Vienna Circle of logical positivists. J. Albert Coffa traces the roots of logical positivism in a semantic tradition that arose in opposition to Kant's theory that a priori knowledge is based on pure intuition and the constitutive powers of the mind, and chronicles the development of this tradition by members and associates of the Vienna Circle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 460 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 29, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521447070
• ISBN-13: 978-0521447072
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,030,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magisterial, Eclectic, Warm and Human, January 15, 2001

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Greg Restall (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap: To the Vienna Station (Paperback)

Coffa's book (completed by his partner Linda Wessels, from a very nearly completed manuscript he left at his death in 1984) is the best source I know for insight into how interest in Kantian philosophical problems of the intuition transmuted to interest in language. This book tracks post-Kantian thought across its development into very different territory: Bolzano and Frege on logic; Russell's early logical atomism; Wittgenstein's Tractatus, and his transition to his later very different philosophy of meaning; Tarski on truth; Schlick, Popper and Reichenbach on the significiance of 20th Century developments in science; and Carnap, on the true significance of philosophical claims.

This book is a teriffic antidote to dry presentations of logical positivism which focus on the "verification principle" and thereby seek to dispatch it in one lecture in an introductory philosophy class. Instead, Coffa shows how logical positivism arose out of a living tradition and forms an important part of the history of contemporary philosophy. The questions we consider today are formed in part by the conceptual shifts of a century ago. It's good that we have a guide like Coffa to show us some more of our own history.

That, and the jokes (read the footnotes for some of the best ones, especially his love/hate relationship with Wittgenstein!) make this a delight to read.