# Ernest Nagel an Rudolf Carnap und Ina Carnap, 16. März 1935 März 1935

Dear Professor and Mrs. Carnap‚

I am very grieved to read from your letter how much ill fortune both of you have been experiencing. One never values health until one has lost it; and I hope that by the time you receive thus you will once more regard good health as a matter of course. I hope too that you are both under excellent medical care and that you follow your physician’s recommendations with scrupulous care. I shall feel very much relieved when you write me that Professor CarnapP Carnap, Rudolf, 1891-1970, dt.-am. Philosoph, 1917-1929 verh. mit Elisabeth Carnap und ab 1933 mit Ina Carnap has regained his strength and that Mrs. CarnapP Carnap, Ina (eig. Elisabeth Maria immacul[ata] Ignatia), 1904–1964, geb. Stöger, heiratete 1933 Rudolf Carnap has regained the use of her thumb. Please let me know when you get a chance.

I read with amazement and a sinking heart that the lecture tour will not be possible. I feel too sad about it myself to be able to console you. I have been hoping against hope that you would be in the U.S. next year, and now feel as if I were being deprived of something which is rightfully mine. I wish I had the power to be of some assistance to you; but alas! influence of any sort is the last thing I possess.

The invitation from Harvard UniversityI Harvard University, Cambridge MA is something of a consolation, and I am very happy that you have been so signally honored. It certainly indicates that Professor LewisP Lewis, Clarence Irving, 1883–1964, am. Philosoph is interested in your work, and your visit may be, as you suggest, the beginning of other things. However, having been disappointed before, I will not count the chickens before they are hatched, especially when I remember the financial difficulties of some of the universities. I am enclosing a letter of acceptance to HarvardI Harvard University, Cambridge MA. I do not know whether you want to send it off as it is; if you want to make some changes or perhaps write an altogether different sort of letter and should want to have it overhauled for the English, please send it on to me. I am a little puzzled by the fact that an invitation should be sent out so early for an event that will not take place until 1936. Is it just possible that there is an error somewhere, and that the date is 1935?

I am very glad to be able to write you that Dr. RosingerP Rosinger, Kurt Edward, 1904–1985, am. Philosoph is not the translator of Fraenkel’sP Fraenkel, Abraham, 1891–1965, dt.-israel. Mathematiker bookB I told you about. His name is KatzP. I know RosingerP Rosinger, Kurt Edward, 1904–1985, am. Philosoph fairly well. He had done a great deal of work with HuntingtonP Huntington, Edward, 1874–1952, am. Mathematiker, has published a long paper on the separation of points jointly with him, and last year he was writing a book on number theoryB (theory of primes, congruences, residues, etc.) with another well-known American mathematician by the name of BrinkmanP. RosingerP Rosinger, Kurt Edward, 1904–1985, am. Philosoph is an Austrian by birth (I think Viennese) and probably knows German very well; I am not sure about this point because I never had the occasion to find out. RosingerP Rosinger, Kurt Edward, 1904–1985, am. Philosoph is one of the many unfortunate young men I know who have their doctorate but are without a position. He has an insignificant, insecure and not very-well paying teaching job in the mathematics department at ColumbiaI Columbia University, New York NY at present. I imagine he hopes to earn something by translation work, and think he is the sort of person who is very conscientious in the things he undertakes.

I know both the booksB B which the Jour[nal] of Phil[osophy]I sent to ErkenntnisI Erkenntnis, Zeitschrift as well as their authors. The booksB B are dissertations for the doctorate 🕮 at ColumbiaI Columbia University, New York NY. I was present at the examination of the two candidates. The HusserlP Husserl, Edmund, 1859–1938, dt. Philosoph bookB is an unimaginative exposition, with no critical Standpunkt of his own; I was never convinced that Mr. OsbornP knew what Husserl’sP Husserl, Edmund, 1859–1938, dt. Philosoph philosophy was about. The book by Mr. MinsP was provoked by the philosophic vagaries of EddingtonP Eddington, Arthur Stanley, 1882–1944, brit. Physiker and others like him; I think many of the points MinsP makes are sound, but as I remember them they were not worked out with sufficient clarity.

Rome is a very pleasant city, and although I have not been seeing very much of it, (EdithP Nagel, Edith, geb. Haggstrom, verh. mit Ernest Nagel is doing the sight-seeing for the present) I enjoy the sense of the past one gets here. I have met Professor EnriquesP Enriques, Federigo, 1871–1946, ital. Mathematiker, a very jovial man, who as you know is interested in the philosophy as well as the history of science. He has a refreshing dislike of scholasticism, but believes that formalism (e. g. logistics) is an easy gateway to it. He is professor of geometry at the UniversityI Universität Rom here, and is interested in certain kinds of foundation problems; but on the whole the present Grundlagenstreit doesn’t hold his interest. I have also met a retired American philosopher, by the name of George SantayanaP Santayana, George, 1863–1952, span.-am. Philosoph. I do not remember whether I ever spoke to you about him. Er treibt keine Wissenschaftliche Philosophie, but he has always held my imagination and admiration by the poignancy of his thought and the beauty of his English. It has been something of an experience for me to see him – I have the sense that I have met a creature from another world. I shall always remember Prague and Rome for the people I met there.

I spend the rest of my leisure doing a little reading, and bemoaning my fate, that I get so little work done that I have so little intelligence to do it with. But that is an old story with me now, and by this time I should be resigned to what the gods have handed out to me.

Our final plans for the summer are not yet made. I hope it will be possible for us to meet you before we sail. I would leave Europe with a sad heart if I thought that when I left you in Prague it was not Auf Wiedersehen. We both send you our warmest regards and esteem.

Yours always‚
Ernest Nagel

Brief, msl., 2 Seiten, RC 029-05-12; Briefkopf: msl. American Express Company  /  Rome, Italy. March 16, 1935, hsl. 38 Piazza di Spagna.

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