Studia Logica is a very good journal, and it should be indexed in ISI. Help us by recommending it! Go hereComplete the form using the following data:Journal title: Studia LogicaJournal URL: www.StudiaLogica.orgPublisher name: SpringerJournal Scope: LogicUnique features distinguishing this journal: please write here your opinion in this matter or write just "Applying Formal Methods to … Continue reading Help Studia Logica get into ISI

Over dinner yesterday, Jason and I got to talking about Erdős numbers of various people. He didn't know his, so I looked it up--the Mathematical Reviews database MathSciNet has a "compute collaboration distance" function in the author search. It produces output like this: Jason Stanley coauthored with Richard G. Heck, Jr. MR1234144 (94k:03006) Richard G. … Continue reading Stanley’s Erdős Number is 5

Agustín Rayo wins over Adam Elga, uses "googol" and a variant of Berry's paradox in knock-out punch: see here. Dr. Evil clutched his heart as though it had been pierced by an arrow. Trembling, he fell to his knees on the floor of the crowded stuffy room, all eyes watching him. The Mexican Multiplier threw … Continue reading The Mexican Multiplier Trounces Dr. Evil in Large Number Duel

Varol Akman kindly sent a link to this picture of the poster advertising the Gödel exhibition in Vienna, with the nice quote: "Today philosophy has arrived, at best, at the point mathematics was at in Babylonian times."

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

Michael Strevens' course notes on Bayesian Confirmation Theory. (HT: Jason Stanley)

Nice of LtU to link to a classic paper that everyone should (re)read: Hoare's Axiomatic basis for computer programming.

(Organized by the Kurt Gödel Society with support from the John Templeton Foundation) The Kurt Gödel Society is proud to announce the commencement of the research fellowship prize program in honor and celebration of Kurt Gödel's 100th birthday.The research fellowship prize program sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation will offer: two Ph.D. (pre-doctoral) fellowships of … Continue reading Kurt Gödel Centenary Research Prize Fellowship

This is an interesting project: teach discrete mathematics not from a textbook, but using the historical papers that first dealt with the topics taught. A bunch of mathematicians and computer scientists at New Mexico State are doing that, and they're asking for your help: try it out in your courses, write them letters of support … Continue reading Teaching Logic from Historical Sources

2nd World Congress and School on Universal LogicCall for papersXi'an, China, August 16-22, 2007 This event is the second in a series of events whose objective is to gather logicians from all orientations (philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, artificial intelligence etc) - people not focusing only on some specific systems of logic or some particular … Continue reading Universal Logic in China

The Department of Mathematics of the Darmstadt University of Technology (TUD) invites applications for a Juniorprofessorship in Mathematics - Applied Logic (W1 B BesG) to be filled 1.4.2007.Applicants must be qualified in Applied Logic. Applications from candidates working in "Mathematical Proof Theory" (e.g. proof mining, proofs as programs, reverse mathematics, constructive formal systems) and/or "Computability … Continue reading Applied Logic Job in Darmstadt