The Carnap entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy had been mildly updated, for the first time since its first publication in 2020. Most people won’t notice a difference, I suspect, though there have been small improvements throughout. The feedback we get about it is pretty positive; at over 100,000 words (with all its supplements), it’s a pretty comprehensive overview, and one of the longest entries in the whole SEP — longer than most introductory books on individual philosophers. Many people seem to find it very useful as a general-purpose first introduction to Carnap (the main entry) as well as a go-to reference on many different aspects of his work (the supplements). And the bibliography is huge.
Since this is the first post on this blog in a couple of years, I should mention that it will now gradually come back to life after this long hibernation. There is a lot to catch up on; I’m not sure exactly where to start, but the first few posts will inevitably be announcements of this sort. Never fear — I’ll get back to the more substantive things that get on people’s nerves before long.
It is a timely development that the growing interest in his thought has been accompanied by an increase in its accessibility. When I was surveying Internet forums devoted to (academic-leaning) philosophy a decade and beyond ago, the literature I saw cited most frequently in exposition of Carnap’s views were Michael Friedman’s writings and some papers from the *Metametaphysics* volume.
Free, online resources are the point of entry for many newcomers, and there are now plenty of scholarly media to serve in that role. There are the excellent SEP entries, this blog, the recent *Carnap-Handbuch*, and Carnap’s own digitized publications, among others. Moreover, there’s less of an excuse now for some of the less reliable depictions of Carnap’s views (and of LE in general) to be propounded as if they have currency, as is sometimes still done, even by academics who ought to be holding themselves to a higher standard.
Been waiting for the comeback! Hope you’ll get around to covering the Philosophical Methodology after Carnap book that was published while you were away! Seems almost none of the papers in there really takes Carnap’s position seriously on its terms.
Funny you should suggest that particular book — watch this space!