October 29, 2025

12pm

Carnegie 113

Logic as Applied Mathematics

The word ‘logic’ has many senses. Here I will understand it as meaning an account of what follows from what and why. With contemporary methodology, logic in this sense—though it may not always have been thought of in this way—is a branch of applied mathematics. This has various implications for how one understands a number of epistemological issues concerning logic. In this talk I will explain this perspective of logic, and explore some of its consequences.

Bio:
Graham Priest has held chairs of philosophy in Australia, the UK, and the United States, as well as many visiting positions at universities in countries in Europe and Asia. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, Boyce Gibson Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, and has visiting positions at the Ruhr University of Bochum (Germany), Tohoku University (Japan), and Shandon University (China). He is known for his work on non-classical logic, particularly in connection with dialetheism, on metaphysics, on the history of philosophy, and on Buddhist philosophy. He has published over 400 papers in nearly every major logic and philosophy journal. His books include: In Contradiction, Beyond the Limits of Thought, Introduction to Non-Classical Logic, Towards Non-Being, One, The Fifth Corner of Four and Capitalism—its Nature and its Replacement, and Mathematical Pluralism.