Science, Logic and Philosophy

Logic and the Philosophy of Science

While logic has sometimes tended to lead to oversimplification and abstraction, it has also made it possible to refine philosophical problems pertaining to science so as to give them rigor and precision, and in some cases, to solve them definitively. There are too many different cases to provide a helpful overview, so I will discuss several examples that I have found especially telling concerni...

If Logic, Game-Theoretical Semantics, and the Philosophy of Science

IF (independence-friendly) logic is about informational independence that may take place between any components that admit of an interpretation in terms of game-theoretical semantics. These two approaches are seen to provide integrative tools and methods across individual sciences, including strategic meaning in linguistics, concurrency in computation, knowledge in multi-agent systems, and quan...

Abduction at the interface of Logic and Philosophy of Science

Abduction is a typical theme where logic and philosophy of science meet today: occasionally, with computer science as a go-between. This is just one instance of a broader study of ‘styles of reasoning’, dating back to Bolzano and Peirce. The resulting concern with ‘logical architecture’ moves us closer to cognitive science, and the dynamics of reasoning intertwined with learning and belief revi...

International Union of History and Philosophy of Science Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science Bulletin no. 11

Wissenschaftslogik : The role of logic in the philosophy of science

Carl Hempel introduced what he called “Craig’s theorem” into the philosophy of science in a famous discussion of the “problem of theoretical terms.” Beginning with Hempel’s use of ‘Craig’s theorem,” I shall bring out some of the key differences between Hempel’s treatment of the “problem of theoretical terms” and Carnap’s in order to illuminate the peculiar function of Wissenschaftslogik in Carn...