This special issue initiates Philosophy and Technology’s new subject area on logic and technology by proposing to explore novel insights from the natural, yet in philosophical contexts still uncommon juxtaposition of logic and technology. Instead of considering questions regarding the philosophical relevance of how logic is applied in technology (as witnessed by the role of recursion theory, the foundation of computation, in logic), as a means to reason about technology (reasoning about programs, security, etc.), or even how technology is used to learn more about logic (e.g. with the help of theorem-provers), we suggest to explore how our thinking about logic can be shaped by our thinking about technology. This includes, first and foremost, the suggestion that we can see logic as a technology by avoiding the common restriction of technology to physical artefacts and the even more traditional restriction of logic to symbolically formulated deductive systems. Abstract or semantic artefacts are technologies, and logic is—like mathematics—a typical example of such a technology.
The proposal to see logic as a technology emphasises the mutual interaction between technology and philosophy, but also addresses the deeper issue that the traditional scope of the philosophy of logic does not include influential uses and applications of logic in or related to computer science, economics, cognitive science, or linguistics, as central or essential uses of logic. Indeed, the exclusive focus on logic as a universally applicable standard for correct deductive reasoning, and the common suggestion that reasoning in the vernacular is the notional domain of application for deductive logic, blocks the development of a common understanding of logics as codifications of validity and of logics as formal modelling tools.
The deadline for submissions is 1 May 2016.
Please see the journal website for more information.
