A Place for Logic in the Humanities?

February 21, 2020

Abstract: Logic has been an important part of philosophy in the western tradition since the work of Aristotle in the 4th Century BCE. Developments of the 19th and the 20th Century have seen an incredible flowering of mathematical techniques in logic, and the discipline transformed beyond recognition into something that can seem forbiddingly technical and formal. The discipline of logic plays a vital role in mathematics, linguistics, computer science and electrical engineering, and it may seem that it no longer has a place within the humanities. In this short talk, I’ll argue that this perception is misplaced and dangerous, and that in a time of increasing specialisation and differentiation between the cultures of the humanities, the sciences, and of engineering, logic not only has much to give to the humanities, it also has much to learn from them.

• The talk is an presentation at The Ballarat Philosophy Symposium 2020, at Federation University, Ballarat.