Nordic Online Logic Seminar: talk by Sara Uckelman on November 22

[Graham Leigh]

The Nordic Online Logic Seminar (NOL Seminar) is organised monthly over Zoom, with expository talks on topics of interest for the broader logic community. The seminar is open for professional or aspiring logicians and logic aficionados worldwide.
 
See the announcement for the next talk below. If you wish to receive the Zoom ID and password for it, as well as further announcements, please subscribe here: https://listserv.gu.se/sympa/subscribe/nordiclogic .
 
Val Goranko and Graham Leigh
NOL seminar organisers
 
--------------------------------------
 Nordic Online Logic Seminar
 
Next talk: Monday, November 22, 17.00-18.30 CET (UTC+1), on Zoom. (Note the later starting time.)
 
Title: John Eliot’s Logick Primer: A bilingual English-Wôpanâak logic textbook
 
Speaker: Sara L. Uckelman, Associate professor at the Department of Philosophy, Durham University
 
Abstract: 
In 1672 John Eliot, English Puritan educator and missionary, published 
The Logick Primer: Some Logical Notions to initiate the INDIANS in the 
knowledge of the Rule of Reason; and to know how to make use thereof 
[1]. This roughly 80 page pamphlet focuses on introducing basic 
syllogistic vocabulary and reasoning so that syllogisms can be created 
from texts in the Psalms, the gospels, and other New Testament books. 
The use of logic for proselytizing purposes is not distinctive: What is 
distinctive about Eliot’s book is that it is bilingual, written in both 
English and Wôpanâak (Massachusett), an Algonquian language spoken in 
eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. It is one of the 
earliest bilingual logic textbooks, it is the only textbook that I know 
of in an indigenous American language, and it is one of the earliest 
printed attestations of the Massachusett language.
 
In this talk, I will:
• Introduce John Eliot and the linguistic context he was working in.
• Introduce the contents of the Logick Primer — vocabulary, inference 
patterns, and applications.
• Discuss notions of “Puritan” logic that inform this primer.
• Talk about the importance of his work in documenting and expanding
the Massachusett language and the problems that accompany his colonial
approach to this work.
 
References
[1] J.[ohn] E.[liot]. The Logick Primer: Some Logical Notions to 
initiate the INDIANS in the knowledge of the Rule of Reason; and to know 
how to make use thereof. Cambridge, MA: Printed by M.[armaduke] 
J.[ohnson], 1672.