The talk will focus on several points of contact between David Hilbert's logical work and Rudolf Carnap’s early contributions to the logical reconstruction of mathematical and scientific theories until the publication of Carnap’s monograph Foundations of Logic and Mathematics in 1939. The comparison between Hilbert and Carnap will focus on two interpretative points: first, the extent to which Carnap’s own project on "general axiomatics" from the 1920s with its focus on metatheoretical properties of axiomatic theories was motivated by Hilbert’s foundational work. Second, the talk will analyze to what extent Carnap’s later views on theoretical languages, in particular, on the status of theoretical terms in science, were directly influenced by Hilbert’s instrumental formalism about logic and mathematics.
Georg Schiemer is professor at the Department of Philosophy and head of department of the Institute Vienna Circle at the University of Vienna. He is an external fellow at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at LMU Munich. His research focuses on the history and philosophy of mathematics and early analytic philosophy. He is also interested in logic, the history and philosophy of logic and formal philosophy of science.
