Carnaps Autobiographie als Autobiographie

Abstract

Abstract Rudolf Carnap’s intellectual autobiography was published in 1963. The specific characteristics of this kind of text and its reception shape his self-testimony. This article examines how these characteristics – typical narrative position and structure, problems of truth and veracity, well-rounded self-presentation – are manifest in the story Carnap tells of his life. In Carnap’s case, the subjective narrative position is the one of the successful philosopher, and Carnap meets the expectation of presenting one’s life as a unity, framed by considerations of his general attitude towards life. In line with the history of autobiographical writing in pietism, Carnap’s autobiography also includes a kind of self-justification in addition to a conversion experience, although the latter is secularized as a conversion from religion to logic-centred philosophy. In this regard, the United States are presented as a blessed country, where Carnap has reached his New Zion which he helped flourish