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Syntax, logical

Syntax, logical

Syntax, logical

“By the logical syntax of a language,” according to Carnap, “we mean the formal theory of the linguistic forms of that language — the systematic statement of the formal rules which govern it together with the development of the consequences which follow from these rules. A theory, a rule, a definition, or the like is to be called formal when no reference is made in it either to the meaning of the symbols or to the sense of the expressions, but simply and solely to the kinds and order of the symbols from which the expressions are constructed.”

This definition would make logical syntax coincide with Hilbertian proof theory (q.v.), and in fact the adjectives syntactical, metalogical, metamathematical are used nearly interchangeably. Carnap, however, introduces many topics not considered by Hilbert, and further treats not only the syntax of particular languages but also general syntax, i.e., syntax relating to all languages in general or to all languages of a given kind.

Concerning Carnap’s contention that philosophical questions should be replaced by, or reformulated as, syntactical questions, see scientific empiricism I C, and Carnap’s book cited below. — A.C.

R. Carnap, The Logical Syntax of Language, New York and London, 1937. Review by S. MacLane, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 44 (1938), pp. 171-176. Review by S. C. Kleene, The Journal of Symbolic Logic, vol. 4 (1939), pp. 82-87.

Fuente: The Dictionary of Philosophy