Carnapstein in America

Abstract

The early reception of Wittgenstein in the United States was characterised by incomplete and partly distorted understanding and, in particular, by a confusion between Wittgenstein’s philosophy and Carnap’s logical positivism. This is shown by providing some data concerning the articles published in The Journal of Philosophy and The Philosophical Review between the 1920s and the 1950s. The philosophical, metaphilosophical and broadly cultural similarities and differences between Wittgenstein and Carnap are discussed, and emphasis is put on the following issue: the (partly justified) confusion between Wittgenstein and Carnap had negative consequences for the early reception of the philosophy of Wittgenstein in the United States, mainly because in the same period Carnap found himself under the (friendly) fire of Quine.