TYLA: R. Carnap's logical positivism

Author name: Pham Minh Hoang

Thesis title:R. Carnap's logical positivism

Dissertation field: Philosophy

Major: Dialectical materialism and historical materialism Code: 62.22.03.02

Name of the postgraduate training unit: University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

1. Purpose and research objects of the thesis

Research purpose: The thesis clarifies the content of R. Carnap's logical positivist thought.

Research object: logical positivism of R. Carnap

2. Research methods used

The thesis is based on the viewpoints of dialectical materialism and historical materialism, Marxist-Leninist theory of philosophy.

The thesis applies dialectical materialism methodology, mainly using the following methods: going from abstract to concrete, unifying logic - history, induction, deduction, comparison, analysis, synthesis.

3. Main results and conclusions

3.1. Main results

- The thesis has contributed to summarizing the research situation of R. Carnap's philosophical thought.

- The thesis has systematized and analyzed the basic contents of R. Carnap's logical positivist thought on the logical syntax of language, semantics, probability and inductive logic.

- The thesis has pointed out the significance of R. Carnap's logical positivism for human cognitive activities.

In theory, the thesis contributes to systematically studying the basic contents of R. Carnap's logical positivism - an issue that has not been mentioned much in philosophical research works in general and logic in particular in Vietnam. From there, the thesis points out the significance of the above contents for human cognitive activities.

In practice, the thesis can be used as a reference for research, teaching logic and modern Western philosophy in general, history of logic and logical positivism in particular, issues of modern logic, analysis of language logic...

3.2. Conclusion

- R. Carnap's logical positivism was born in the context of Western society undergoing strong changes, especially the development of industrial society and the demands for economic growth and improving the quality of human life, which caused the development of sciences in the direction of "positivism". In this situation, based on inheriting and selectively absorbing the views of previous philosophers, Carnap laid the first bricks for logical positivism - the highest form of positivism.

- The first project that R. Carnap carried out was the logical syntax of language. He built aformal syntaxto clarify the content conveyed through language and to aim at “purifying” philosophy from pseudo-problems such as metaphysics, or from non-philosophical problems such as psychological questions that belong to the research field of natural sciences.

- At the end of the syntactic research phase, R. Carnap built a semantic system and a logical semantic system together with the method of connotation and extension as the main tool used in the process of semantic analysis of this system. From semantics, Carnap has defined more clearly aboutlogical truth– a kind of truth that exists only in the semantic system without reference to extra-linguistic objects.

- The final stage in R. Carnap's career was the stage when he studied probability and inductive logic. During this stage, Carnap continued to make great contributions in clarifying the conceptual content.logical probabilityand at the same time build a complete inductive system in which this concept holds a central position.

- The study of R. Carnap's logical positivism not only has great theoretical significance for philosophy and logic but also provides human thinking with sharp activities, containing much potential for practical application.

                                                              SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS

The author's name: Pham Minh Hoang

Thesis title:Logical positivist thoughts of R. Carnap

Scientific branch of the thesis: Philosophy

Major: Dialectical materialism and historical materialism

Code: 62.22.03.02

The name of postgraduate training institution: University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi

1. Thesis purpose and objectives

Thesis purpose: The thesis clarifies the content of logical positivist thoughts of R. Carnap.

Thesis objectives: logical positivist thoughts of R. Carnap.

2. Research methods

The thesis is based on the points of dialectical materialism and historical materialism, Marxist - Leninistic philosophy.

The thesis applies materialism methodology, which mainly uses methods: from abstract to specific, logical unity - history, inductive, interpreting, comparing, analyzing, summing.

3. Major results and conclusions

3.1. The major results

- The thesis has contributed to summarizing the research situation of philosophical thoughts of R. Carnap

- The thesis has systematized and analyzed the basic contents of R. Carnap's logical positivist thoughts on the logical syntax of language, semantics, probability and inductive logic.

- The thesis has pointed out the meaning in R. Carnap's logical positivist thoughts for human cognitive activities.

Theoretically, the thesis contributes to scientifically studying the basic contents of R. Carnap's logical positivist thinking - an issue that has not been mentioned much in the philosophical research works in general and logic particularly in Vietnam. Since then, the thesis raises the meaning of the above content to human cognitive activities.

In practical terms, the thesis can be used as a reference for the study, teaching of logic and modern Western philosophy in general, the history of logic and logical positivism in particular, problems of modern logic, linguistic logic analysis ...

3.2.Conclusions

- The logical positivist thoughts of R. Carnap was born in the context of dramatic changes in Western society, especially the development of industrial society, the requirements of economic growth and improvement of the quality of human life have led the sciences to develop in a "positivist" trend. In this context, based on the inherited, selective acquisition of the views of the previous philosophers, Carnap laid the first bricks for logical positivism - the highest form of realism.

- The first project that R. Carnap implemented was the logical syntax of language. He formulated a formal syntax to correct the content transmitted through language and aim to "purify" philosophy from pseudo-problems such as metaphysics, or from non-metaphysical problems such as questions of psychology that belong to the field of study of natural sciences.

- At the end of the syntactic research phase, R. Carnap built the semantic system and the logical semantic system along with the external inner function with the function as the main tool used in the process of semantic analysis of this system. From semantics, Carnap has more clearly shaped the logical truth - a kind of truth that exists only in the semantic system without reference to non-linguistic objects.

- The final stage in R. Carnap's career was the stage he studied on probability and inductive logic. During this period, Carnap continued to make major contributions to the clarification of theconcept of logical probabilityand the construction of a complete inductive system in which this concept remains central.

- The study of logical positivist thoughts of R. Carnap is not only of great theoretical significance for philosophy and logic but also provides the human thinking activity with sharp activities, which contains many potential to apply in practice.