rational reconstruction also called logical reconstruction, translation of a discourse of a certain conceptual type into a discourse of another conceptual type with the aim of making it possible to say everything (or everything important) that is expressible in the former more clearly (or perspicuously) in the latter. The best-known example is one in Carnap’s Der Logische Aufbau der Welt. Carnap attempted to translate discourse concerning physical objects (e.g., ‘There is a round brown table’) into discourse concerning immediate objects of sense experience (‘Color patches of such-and-such chromatic characteristics and shape appear in such-and-such a way’). He was motivated by the empiricist doctrine that immediate sense experience is conceptually prior to everything else, including our notion of a physical object. In addition to talk of immediate sense experience, Carnap relied on logic and set theory. Since their use is difficult to reconcile with strict empiricism, his translation would not have fully vindicated empiricism even if it had succeeded. See also DEFINITION , LOGICAL POSI- TIVISM , PHENOMENALIS. T.Y.