Introduction to Semantics.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,, 1942. With an autograph letter outlining Carnap's personal recommendations of works on mathematical logic First edition, first printing, with a loosely inserted autograph letter, dated 26 February 1947, from the author to Roy Brady (an incoming student at the University of Chicago), recommending various works on mathematical logic and commending his proposal for a new introduction to the Principia Mathematica. Roy Brady (1918-1998), a systems analyst at Rand Corp, later became a world-renowned collector of wine and wine books. His book collection is now held at UC Davis, but he disposed of his wine collection in a rather different way - by drinking it. His signature, dated 10 October 1945, is on the front free endpaper, while the contents bear his pencil annotations. The letter retains its original stamped and addressed envelope. Despite its seemingly pedagogical title, the Introduction to Semantics aims to outline a complete theory of the meaning and interpretation of language. The work captures Carnap (1891-1970), a key member of the Vienna Circle and "one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century" (Creath, p. vii), as he transitions to what has been termed his "semantic phase" (Lavers, p. 295). In the Introduction, Carnap notes that the focus on logical structures typical of of his earlier Logical Syntax of Language has to be modified in view of the semantical emphasis on external meaning. Nonetheless, Wilfrid Sellars noted that "for the first time, the naturalistic-empiricist tradition has the fundamentals of an adequate philosophy of mind. To the creation of this truly revolutionary situation... Carnap's Logical Syntax of Language and Introduction to Semantics have contributed at least as much as any other single source" (Sellars, p. 468). Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover panelled in blind. Light rubbing, moderate wear to extremities, slight toning to contents: a very good copy. Richard Creath, ed., Rudolf Carnap and the Legacy of Logical Empiricism, 2012; Gregory Lavers, "Carnap, Semantics and Ontology", Erkenntis (1975-), vol. 60, no. 3, May 2004; Wilfrid Sellars, "Empiricism and Abstracted Entities", The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, 1963.