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SUMMARY:The contingency of logical necessity: an analysis of a sociologica
 l account of logic - Marion Boulicault (Department of History and Philosop
 hy of Science)
DTSTART:20140221T120000Z
DTEND:20140221T130000Z
UID:TALK50155@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Toby Bryant
DESCRIPTION:Logical deduction is central to analytic philosophy: most cruc
 ially\, it provides the standard against which we judge arguments. Traditi
 onally\, the relation of deducibility between propositions\, i.e. whether 
 or not a conclusion logically follows from a set of premises and rules of 
 inference\, is said to be knowable a priori and with absolute certainty. I
 t is often taken to be self-evident that if you accept the premises of a v
 alid argument\, the conclusion necessarily follows. By making use of a the
 ory known as 'meaning finitism' David Bloor challenges this traditional ac
 count of logical necessity\, arguing that 'what\, in the realm of language
  and ideas\, we refer to as logical relations\, and logical constraints\, 
 are really the constraints imposed on us by other people. Logical necessit
 y is a moral and social relation'.\n\nIn this essay\, I will examine wheth
 er Bloor is justified in making such a bold claim. I will begin by giving 
 an account of what is meant by terms such as 'logic' and 'logical necessit
 y'. I will then outline two different interpretations of Bloor's thesis: t
 he first being the 'external' or 'holist' interpretation under which the c
 hoice to accept or not accept a given logical system is a contingent and s
 ocial matter. This first interpretation would take Bloor to be advocating 
 for logical pluralism or relativism. On the second or 'internal' interpret
 ation\, social factors penetrate a given logical system itself: the relati
 on between premises and conclusion\, given accepted rules of inference\, i
 s a moral and social relation. In the remainder of this essay\, I will eva
 luate whether or not Bloor succeeds in justifying either of the above two 
 interpretations.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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