Inductive Logic as Explication: The Evolution of Carnap's Notion of Logical Probability

Sznajder, Marta (2018): Inductive Logic as Explication: The Evolution of Carnap's Notion of Logical Probability. In: Monist, Vol. 101, No. 4: pp. 417-440

Abstract

According to a popular interpretation, Carnap's interpretation of probability had evolved from a logical towards a subjective conception. However Carnap himself insisted that his basic philosophical view of probability was always the same. I address this apparent dash between Carnap's self-identification and the subsequent interpretations of his work. Following its original intentions, I reconstruct inductive logic as an explication. The emerging picture is of a versatile linguistic framework, whose main function is not the discovery of objective logical relations in the object language, but the stipulation of conceptual possibilities. Within this representation, I map out the changes that the project went through. Seen from such an explication-based perspective, inductive logic becomes quite hard to categorize using the standard labels.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP)
• ISSN: 0026-9662
• Language: English