Call for Participants: Logic in Kant’s Wake

 

From 6-8 May 2016, McMaster’s Philosophy Department will be hosting the final installment of the workshop. The event is sponsored by McMaster’s Bertrand Russell Research Centre (Faculty of Humanities), Michael Forster’s Humboldt Professorship (Bonn, Germany) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The general motivation for the project is to better understand the development of logic in the 19th century and, in particular, to make sense of an idea that seems to have been formidably widespread at the time, namely, that Kant had a tremendous influence on the discipline. This surprising observation raises a number of questions, for instance: What did logicians understood ‘logic’ to mean before and after Kant? What were Kant’s views on logic and how did they inform the views of his successors? What characterizes the Idealists’ reception of Kant’s ideas on logic? How does logic develop in other post-Kantian contexts, e.g. in Fries’ and Herbart’s theories, and later in those of Trendelenburg, Lotze and the algebraists in Britain? Where does the groundbreaking work of Bolzano, Frege and Russell fit within the broader (German-speaking, British) contexts? What of the relation between logic and psychology before the well-known anti-psychologistic criticisms of the end of the 19th century?

Workshop Participants:

  • Frederick Beiser, Syracuse
  • Michael Forster, Bonn
  • Nicholas Griffin, McMaster
  • Jeremy Heis, UC Irvine
  • Sandra Lapointe, McMaster
  • Gary Ostertag, CUNY
  • Lydia Patton, Virginia Tech
  • Consuelo Preti, The College of New Jersey
  • Graham Priest, CUNY/Melbourne
  • Brigitte Sassen, McMaster
  • Nick Stang, Toronto
  • Clinton Tolley, UC San Diego

Call For Participants

We welcome anyone who is interested to attend to indicate their intention in advance, so that we can plan in consequence. The program is also still open. Each participant will be allocated 90 minutes. Ideally, presentations should be 30-35 minutes, to allow time for thorough discussion and maximize constructive input as well as the exchange of ideas. Each participant will be expected to contribute to the proceedings (in a volume with a first rate publisher). The workshop should be a place where participants can test ideas and benefit from discussion toward the final draft of their paper.

There are not many spots available, but we warmly welcome submissions, especially from experts whose work might help throw lights on aspects of the development of logic in the 19th century – e.g. alternative conceptions of its scope, method and place within philosophy – that have been neglected. If you are interested in participating, please send a short message indicating your interest and an abstract, no later than 1 November to:

lapointe@mcmaster.ca

Notification will be given shortly thereafter.