Volume 16/17, 1982
Jules Vuillemin
Pages 313-326
Physicalism and Relativity
Carnap opposes physicalist language to phenomenal language. His elementary physicalist sentences convey descriptions which physicists still regard as phenomenal and subjective. A second order physicalism (principle of special relatively) is required in order to express physical laws. Carnap makes the phenomenal language a proper part of the physicalist language. This relation is compared to the relation that general relativity establishes between geometry and physiscs.