Principle of Sufficient Reason

Ukraine and Mississippi

Rudolf Carnap appeals to the Principle of Sufficient Reason as a proper principle in the development of the theory of extension, which is a proper subject within scientific philosophy. In Carnap we can find a kind of reciprocal relation between science, where ultimately the principle of indifference rules, and scientific philosophy, where …

…”it is also generally agreed that this determination of extension involves uncertainty and possible error. But since this holds for all concepts of empirical science, nobody regards this fact as a sufficient reason for rejecting the concepts of the theory of extension. The sources of uncertainty are chiefly the following: first, the linguist's acceptance of the result that a given thing is denoted by 'Hund' for Karl may be erroneous, e.g., due to a misunderstanding or a factual erroro of Karl's and, second, the generalization of things which he has not tested suffers, of course, from the uncertainty of all inductive infererence. Carnap, ”Meaning an…