We are pleased to announce a new seminar series entitled History of Logic, organized by Francesco Pisano, in collaboration with Felice Masi and Antonio Piccolomini d’Aragona, at the Department of Humanities (B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy) of the University of Naples “Federico II”. This event is part of the activities of the Mechane – Laboratory for the Philosophy of Technology and the SToNE – Laboratory for the Study of Neo-Kantianism.
The seminar series takes place annually, with monthly talks (mostly online) that delve into various topics concerning the history of logic. The talks and related events are announced through our newsletter. Those interested in attending online and subscribing to the newsletter can visit the Contacts page to request the link.
You will also find a page dedicated to the current series with details about upcoming talks, while an overview of previous editions is available in the Past Series section. Every two editions, we collect a selection of articles from the seminars into volumes. Additionally, the Hosts and Partners page lists the institutions hosting or partnering with the event, and the Side Events page provides a list of satellite events connected to the seminar series.
Guiding Principles The series is driven by the idea that historical knowledge is a powerful tool for understanding and advancing in all scientific fields, including the formal sciences. Traditionally, the study of the history of formal sciences is often considered of secondary importance compared to the abstract and theoretical understanding of concepts. However, we believe that even the most technical and abstract notions are often better understood when their origins are traced and their development is followed through centuries, or even millennia.
In the case of logic, specific problems emerge, such as the relationship between logical abstraction and cognitive operations, between logical expression, writing, and computation, and finally between logic and history itself. Some argue that logic has no history, as it is supposed to reflect linguistic or ontological structures that are essentially immutable. On the contrary, from our perspective, studying the history of logic provides new and meaningful insights into these structures by interpreting them from a genealogical perspective.
Participation We invite scholars and enthusiasts from philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, cognitive sciences, and other related disciplines to join us in exploring these themes through the expertise of specialists in the field.