Unfortunately, only for a talk: this Friday at 4, "Knowledge and Action," in SS 1253. He hasn't told us what specifically he will be speaking about, but I'm sure it's going to be excellent.

My colleague Elizabeth Brake pointed out to me a wonderful passage in the "1706 Preface" to Mary Astell's Reflections upon Marriage, in which she's criticizing William Nicholls' claim (in The Duty of Inferiors towards their Superiors, in Five Practical Discourses (London 1701), Discourse IV: The Duty of Wives to their Husbands), that women are naturally … Continue reading Quantifiers and Claims about the Inferiority of Women

Open Court sent a couple of volumes from their Popular Culture and Philosophy series a few weeks back, but I've only now had time to read the intro to Bullshit and Philosophy. It's about bullshit, in particular, about Frankfurt's On Bullshit, and it's edited by Gary Hardcastle and George Reisch. Like I said, I've only … Continue reading Bullshit and Philosophy

Ok, this has nothing to do with logic, but it's so awesome that I have to post about it. Thanks to Lillian Lovich for sending the link!Helvetica, the best font of all time, is turning 50 this year. There's a movie about the font coming out, which I'm really excited about.

In the summer of 2007, the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University will hold a three-week summer school in logic and formal epistemology for promising undergraduates in philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and other sciences.The goals are to introduce students to cross-disciplinary fields of research at an early stage in their career; andforge lasting … Continue reading Carnegie Mellon Summer School in Logic and Formal Epistemology

I just had the following interesting exchange with my colleague Jack MacIntosh, in which every question was asked sincerely, and I have every reason to believe that Jack's statements were true: RZ: Zeno and Plato were contemporaries, right?JM: Yes, for a while.RZ: Did Plato retire before Aristotle began his studies?JM: About Aristotle, I don't know.RZ: … Continue reading Of Names

I totally missed it, but the first entry on history of logic in the Stanford Encyclopedia to be published since Paolo Mancosu and I signed on as subject editors has been published over two months ago: Mario Gómez-Torrente on Tarski.

Special Issue of Studia Logica on Applied Logic in the Philosophy of Science Guest editors: Igor Douven and Leon HorstenStudia Logica is extending its scope. In future the journal will not only cover pure logic but also applications of formal-logical methods in philosophy and cognitive science. To mark this change, the journal will have several … Continue reading Special Issue of Studia Logica on Applied Logic in the Philosophy of Science

Hello, all. Sorry for not posting lately. Anyway. Happy New Year! I pronounce 2007 the John Barkley Rosser, Sr. Centennial Year Rosser was born December 6, 1907 and was one of the pioneers of modern mathematical logic, especially, of recursion theory and the λ-calculus. He also contributed to areas such as number theory and ballistics. … Continue reading Rosser Centennial Year