Challenges for the Logic of Social Research: to Grasp Rationality, to Deal with Complexity

The two Herculean tasks – to define rationality, as a basis of social order, and to tackle complexity of social phenomena – require harnessing potent forces and resources of logic. One needs ‘basic logic’, that is, logical calculi to have rules of correct reasonings, then methodological reflexion on the use of mathematical models in social sciences, at last some additions to basic logic. The last involve theoretical computer science to judge the power of algorithms used in modelling, and a study of practical reasoning in social interactions; such a study is provided by the theory of games and decision-making. All that jointly deserves to be called the logic of social research.