Restructuring Enlightenment:
From Carnap’s Aufbau to Conceptual Engineering

Instructor: Reza Negarestani Date & Time: Fridays May 7, 14, 21, June 4, 11, 18, July 2, 9 10:00 to 12:30 ET

DESCRIPTION: As a direct continuation of The Enigma of Carnap’s Aufbau, this eight-session course will continue to chart the development of Rudolf Carnap’s thought, from the problems arising in Aufbau to their solutions in light of Carnap’s subsequent works starting from The Logical Syntax of Language to Logical Foundations of Probability. All in all, the aim of this seminar is to make an overall survey of Carnap’s main philosophical ambition that begins to crystalize with Aufbau and The Unity of Science—that is, the a philosophy equipped sufficiently to rethink and restructure the Enlightenment as a project of systematic universalism where the unity of all sciences and the translatability between statements made within psychological, physical and cultural domains have not only profound implications for philosophy and science but also for an egalitarian universalist politics.

From the cautious pluralist attitude of Carnap with regard to constitution systems in Aufbau to his paradigms of conceptual engineering and the principle of tolerance, Carnap shows his philosophy to be a new philosophy aimed at rekindling the Enlightenment. And in that reinvigoration of the Enlightenment—which is at once, constructive and critical—philosophy is reinvented anew, and the project of Enlightenment is restructured in accordance to the developments in areas encompassing science and engineering, economy and politics.

As part of the syllabus for this course, supplementary materials will be introduced in advance. Yet we also take the liberty to sidestep from the listed reading list when required.

IMAGE: Francis Picabia, Fille née sans mère (Girl Born without a Mother), 1916-17

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