Logic and Philosophy IV

In his JfP Analysis 2004-05, Brian Weatherson notes an apparent dearth of logic job openings this season. I mentioned in the comments there, and previously here, that this season is actually pretty good for straight “AOS: Logic” jobs at top departments. Ken Taylor suggested that a dearth of logic jobs, combined with an apparent decline in the number of American-trained logicians suggests a decline in logic in the field on this side of the pond. It does seem to me to be the case that there’s more logic being done in Australasia and the UK than in the US and Canada, and even more in continental Europe. I don’t know why that is. Why is that? But then Jason Stanley made the very good point that there are a bunch of very good, younger logicians who are or have made their mark not by contributions to straight logic, but by using logic in work in M&E. I’ve conjectured before that this is where logic seems to be going in philosophy in the US: Logic in philosophy departments takes less the form of straight “theorem proving logic” but of applications of logic in work that is really in M&E. That raises some important questions about the role of logic in graduate training, which there will be a panel on at the ASL Spring Meeting/Pacific APA. Too bad Jason won’t be there.

One thought on “Logic and Philosophy IV

  1. Don’t a fair amount get jobs in the fields, apart from philosophy, of mathematics (e.g. pure) and computer science (e.g. programming automated reasoning systems like otter)? Was that taken into consideration?

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