"Was Early Carnap a Machian Neutral Monist? Mediating between Opposing Responses"
Abstract: In this talk, I defend the thesis that early Carnap is a Machian neutral monist. To support this thesis, I mediate between two opposing readings of the relation between Mach and early Carnap: Textor (2021), who advances a neutral monistic reading of Carnap’s Aufbau, and Banks (2003, 2014), who regards Carnap’s Aufbau and Mach’s neutral monism as divergent projects. I argue that the Aufbau does not satisfy the main conditions of Machian neutral monism and that the comparison between Mach and early Carnap with respect to ontological neutrality remains largely underdetermined. I further argue that Carnap’s pre-Aufbau works satisfy the main conditions of Machian neutral monism and support a reading according to which Mach and early Carnap are aligned in their account of ontological neutrality.
Caterina Del Sordo is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
