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Workshop on Medieval Logic and its Contemporary Relevance

Arché, a philosophical research centre here at the University of St Andrews, will be hosting a workshop on medieval logic and its contemporary relevance from the 30th of April to the 2nd of May, 2018. Arché hopes to include six Contributed Talks lasting one hour with discussion. From Arché:

‘Contributed Talks should preferably both contain historical material from the middle ages, including Arabic and other traditions besides the Latin West, and relate it to contemporary concerns in philosophical logic. To submit a talk for the workshop, please send an abstract of around 500 words to [email protected] by 1 February 2018. We intend to let successful contributors know the result by 15 February.’

The Philosophy Department resides in Edgecliffe, on The Scores, St Andrews

Speakers invited to the event include Bianca Bosman (Groningen, The Netherlands), Graziana Ciola (Pisa, Italy), Catarina Dutilh Novaes (Groningen, The Netherlands) [TBC], Spencer Johnston (Cambridge, England), Graham Priest (CUNY Graduate Center, USA), and Sara Uckelman (Durham, England).

From Arché: ‘George Santayana once observed that those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Of course, history can be studied for many reasons, even for its own sake. But studying medieval logic, in particular, can make us aware of the consequences of certain ideas in at least two ways. First, the problems that medieval logicians were tackling are in many cases still with us today and still unresolved, more so than in some more recent periods. Secondly, though medieval academia was small in comparison to its modern counterpart, logic played a key role in the medieval curriculum and was the object of close attention by some remarkably perceptive thinkers. So the study of medieval logic has particular contemporary relevance and can yield many insights into contemporary puzzles in philosophy of logic. The object of the workshop is to encourage investigation into these connections and to showcase notable examples.

Enquiries about the workshop and registration should be addressed to [email protected]. Further details will be published shortly. We are grateful to the British Society for the History of Philosophy, to the Leverhulme Trust, to the Scots Philosophical Association and to the University of St Andrews for financial support.’