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1) # Numbered list itemStrict Verification – a scientific proposition should be completely and directly testable through elementary experience. 2) # Numbered list itemVerifiable in Principle – a softer approach, stating that a scientific proposition is required to be conceptually testable, and is scientific even if no verifying or negating experience have been observed.
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Carnap’s first major philosophical work- [[Carnap (1967b)|“The Logical Structure of the World”]] (1928 German: Der logische Aufbau der Welt, English Tran. 1967), also known as Aufbau, was written before he joined the Vienna Circle, yet it embodies a logical positivist view by its attempts to construct a logical system to justify empirical knowledge. By this time Carnap has had already established a strong relationship with Hans Reichenbach (also a member of the circle). The two shared an interested in discussing Einstein’s challenges to Kantianism.[[CiteRef::Cirera (1994)|pp. 1-42]]
In 1929, Carnap officially joined the Vienna Circle and became a leading member.[[CiteRef::Cirera (1994)|pp. 1-42]] The Circle, and Carnap in particular, argued for ‘logical positivism’ a new flavor of empiricism post-Kant which would replace synthetic a priori forms by structuring empirical knowledge on modern mathematics and logic as analytical statements.[[CiteRef::Friedman (2008)]] They wished to define scientific rationality that against metaphysical speculation. For members of the circle (more importantly for [[Otto Neurath|Neurath]], than Carnap) the motivation for rejecting metaphysics was to use science legitimacy as a tool to transform society, against rising nationalist movement in Vienne and Germany at that time (1930s). [[CiteRef::Cat (2017)]]
This view can be understood from Carnap’s works in two different ways:
Different segments in the Aufbau can be understood either as strict or principally verifiable. Challenges with strict verification caused Carnap to drop this view later, as uncorroborated theories were considered unscientific.
