Gödel emphatically opposed Carnap's "Syntax Program", based on a conviction that his Platonism was incompatible with Carnap's Conventional ism. These two doctrines were formulated much too sketchily by their authors to al low final conclusions. By paying closer attention to the real natures of these doctrines, i.e. by offering more exact explications, they can adequately be compared, with the surprising result that they are compatible, and that they differ only by a factor of "episte mological optimism".