[News] IVC Talk: Romy Vekony (IVC Fellow, Florida State University) on "To Speak of Abstract Objects", May 21, 4.45 pm

Dear all, our next speaker in the Philosophy of Science Colloquium organized by the Institute Vienna Circle is Romy Vekony (IVC Fellow, Florida State University), who will give a talk on May 21, 4.45-6.15 pm. All are welcome! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Philosophy of Science Colloquium TALK: Romy Vekony (IVC Fellow, Florida State University)* To Speak of Abstract Objects Philosophy of Science Colloquium The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows. * Date:* 21/05/2026 * Time:* 16h45 * Venue:* New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 3C * Abstract:* There has been a resurgence of interest in Carnap's philosophy, particularly his Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology (ESO) (Carnap, 1950). Many scholars (Ecklund (2009, 2013, 2016, 2023, 2025), Flocke (2020, 2024), Broughton (2021), Sidelle (2016)) are interested in the historical Carnap's proposal for constructing linguistic frameworks. For example, Matti Eklund (2009, 2016) defends a 'language pluralist' view where, under Carnap's Principle of Tolerance, frameworks simply amount to interpreted languages, and a sentence can differ in truth value depending on the meaning that the language assigns to it. He contrasts this with what he calls a 'language relativist' view which holds that sentences are true or false only relative to a framework. I argue that both these interpretations miss Carnap's motivation for writing ESO. Additionally, Flocke (2020) has argued for another interpretation of Carnapian frameworks that supports her position on how Carnap attempts to reconcile his empiricism with the existence of abstract objects. However, I argue that Carnap was explicit in ESO about how all he needed to do was reconcile empiricism with the talk of abstract objects. I believe both Eklund and Flocke misunderstand Carnap because they downplay his pragmatic attitude towards linguistic tools. My project aims to show if we appreciate Carnap's pragmatist bent by examining broader attitude towards languages in his historical and social context, we can forge a path to a new interpretation of his frameworks that I believe is more faithful to his original intentions in ESO to allow the empiricist to speak of abstract objects without ontological commitment.