[FOM] FOM: BUFFALO LOGIC COLLOQUIUM 4TH FALL ANNOUNCEMENT

[John Corcoran]

BUFFALO LOGIC COLLOQUIUM 
http://www.philosophy.buffalo.edu/EVENTS/blc.htm
2006-7 THIRTY-SEVENTH YEAR
FOURTH FALL ANNOUNCEMENT
QUOTES OF THE MONTH:  LEWIS ON MATHEMATICAL SYSTEMS: A mathematical
system is any set of strings of recognizable marks in which some of the
strings are taken initially and the remainder derived from these by
operations performed according to rules which are independent of any
meaning assigned to the marks. C. I. Lewis, 1918, 355. TARSKI ON FORMAL
LANGUGES: We are not interested here in ‘formal’ languages to the
expressions of which no meaning is attached. For such languages the
problem here discussed has no relevance, it is not even meaningful.
Tarski 1933/1956, 166.  CORCORAN ON LEWIS, TARSKI, AND ZOMBIES.  Is it
an exquisite irony that 15 years later Tarski published a completely
meaningful axiomatization of string theory, a theory about possibly
meaningless strings?  And in the same paper he made the concept of truth
respectable and saved logic from the skeptics and the zombies. John
Corcoran 2006.

NOTE TIME CHANGE
THIRD MEETING
Friday, November 10, 2006
1:30-3:30 P.M.
141 Park Hall

SPEAKER: Daniel Merrill, Philosophy, Oberlin College.
	
COMMENTATOR: John Corcoran, Philosophy, University of Buffalo.

TITLE: De Morgan’s Ways of Construing the Syllogism.

ABSTRACT: Augustus De Morgan's logical work seems to have been
constrained by a fixation on tinkering with the traditional syllogism.
Nevertheless, he introduced three logical innovations which go far
beyond the syllogism. What is notable is that the syllogism emerges as a
special case of each approach and that each ends up construing the
syllogism in a different way. The three innovations are: the logic of
complex terms (Boolean algebra), the numerically definite syllogism, and
the logic of relations. All are found in his FORMAL LOGIC (1847), though
the logic of relations is only developed fully later on. This talk will
outline the innovations, and discuss critically the ways in which De
Morgan embeds the traditional syllogism within them.


Dutch treat supper 6:30 pm at the Family Tree.
Please try to let Corcoran know you are coming.

Future Speakers: George Boger (Canisius College), William Demopoulos
(University of Western Ontario and UC-Irvine), William Rapaport
(University of Buffalo), José Miguel Sagüillo (University of Santiago de
Compostela), Stewart Shapiro (Ohio State University), Barry Smith
(University of Buffalo).
Sponsors: Some meetings of the Buffalo Logic Colloquium are sponsored in
part by the C. S. Peirce Professorship in American Philosophy and by
other institutions.

All are welcome.
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Corcoran: corcoran at buffalo.edu


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