WIDER STILL AND WIDER... RESETTING THE BOUNDS OF LOGIC an essay

Modern logic is often defined in terms of specific formal languages, rules, and calculi. Such architectural decisions about a field form a pervasive implicit definition which determines professional practice – through the structure of textbooks, as well as the research agenda that determines 'interest', and hence acceptance and academic status. Such a practice may come to contain a lot of historical accident, or force of habit. Therefore, it seems worth thinking about the defining agenda of a field once in a while. In this brief essay, we explore alternative views of logic, locating the nature of the field in more abstract themes, concerns and attitudes. The new definition does not remove the need for the old agenda, but we advocate a shift in emphasis, toward greater generality and range of application. The outcome is a conception of logic as a broad methodological stance, looking for invariants in (information) structures and processes. to appear in A. Varzi, ed. "The European Review of Philosophy, vol. IV" CSLI Publications, Stanford