5-7 November 2008
Brussels, Belgium
LOGIC NOW AND THEN (LNAT) - NOV 5-7 2008
L.S.,
The Center for Research in Syntax, Semantics and Phonology (CRISSP) in
Brussels is pleased to announce the first Brussels Conference on Natural
Logic. The theme of this year's conference is Logic Now and Then.
The colloquium will be held in Brussels from November 5 till November 7,
2008. We invite abstracts for forty-five-minute talks (followed by ten
minutes of discussion). The theme description and the call for papers
can be found below and on the conference website:
http://www.crissp.be/LNAT.html.
Kind regards,
Dany Jaspers (dany.jaspers@hubrussel; HUB, CRISSP)
Hans Smessaert (KULeuven, CRISSP)
Pieter Seuren (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen,
CRISSP)
Logic Now and Then
Theme description
Since its Aristotelian and Stoic origins, logic has failed to satisfy
natural logical intuitions. 'Some F is G' is intuitively taken to imply
that 'Not all F is G', but logic tells us that we are wrong. 'P or Q' is
intuitively taken to imply that P and Q are not both true, but logic
again tells us that we are wrong. The clash was made worse by the advent
of standard modern predicate logic, which tells us that 'All F is G' is
true when there is no Fs, as when it is said that all mermaids have a
bank account. Natural speakers definitely feel that such sentences are
false, but we are told that they are true.
This question has quite a history, and the prevailing view in our day is
that the clash can be neutralized with the help of the Gricean maxims.
There is, however, a growing body of opinion holding that the Gricean
maxims do not do the work they were hired for. For example, the maxims
fail to explain why a sentence like 'He couldn't move forward or
backward' is immediately understood as 'he couldn't move forward and he
couldn't move backward', whereas 'He couldn't move forward and backward'
is not immediately understood as 'he couldn't move forward or he
couldn't move backward'. Yet if the maxims were worth their salt, they
should explain this difference.
Recent work has opened the perspective of a new, more logically
oriented, approach. It is claimed that the linguistic, cognitively real,
meanings of the words all, some, not, and, and or form a sound system of
predicate logic that differs crucially from modern standard logic and
does greater justice to natural logical intuitions. Certain restrictions
on standard mathematical set theory generate a predicate logic that is a
much better reflection of natural logical intuitions than standard
logic. This point of view opens a vast perspective of original and
exciting research.
Logicians of the past, especially but not only the Middle Ages, have
offered many surprisingly original insights into the questions at hand,
relying exclusively on their natural intuitions of meaning and
consistency. In general, the issues raised in the context of modern
studies and debates have a long and highly relevant history, which is,
in most cases, hardly known to the researchers involved. Conversely,
historians of logic tend to look at their research object with a
magnifying glass, anxious to put together a true and balanced picture of
what went on at the time. This work is, of course, indispensable, but
the historians tend to follow current debates only from a distance. That
being so, they risk missing gems in the works of their protagonists. To
put it bluntly, the modern practitioners of logic tend to have little
knowledge of the past, while the historians of logic could be more
conversant with the issues that are topical in modern studies.
It is the purpose of the conference to bring together practitioners and
historians of logic under the overall banner of natural logic and its
cognitive roots. The organizers hope and expect that the conference will
contribute to greater mutual openness and greater flexibility on both
sides, while new and fruitful acquaintances are made and new ideas may
be triggered.
For this conference we welcome papers on raised above. In particular, we so
licit submissions that bring history
and modern logic together against the background of natural language, or
submissions on the methodological or philosophical aspects of the
relation between logic and language or language use, but papers that are
specifically historical or specifically systematic are also welcome.
The following invited speakers have accepted to give a talk at the LNAT
conference:
Larry Horn (Yale University)
Gyula Klima (Fordham University)
Michiel Van Lambalgen (Amsterdam University)
Crit Cremers (Leiden University LUCL)
Martin Stokhof (Amsterdam University)
Irene Rosier-Catach (Paris) (to be confirmed)
Important dates:
Submission deadline: September 1, 2008
Notification of acceptance: September 20, 2008
Conference: November 5-7, 2008
Call for papers
Abstract guidelines:
Abstracts should not exceed two pages, including data, references and
diagrams. Abstracts should be typed in at least 11-point font, with
one-inch margins (letter-size; 8"1/2 by 11" or A4) and a maximum of 50
lines of text per page. Abstracts must be anonymous and submissions are
limited to 1 individual and 1 joint abstract per author.
Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Send name, affiliation,
e-mail, mailing address and title of the paper in the body of the
message. Add two attachments:
* an anonymous abstract in pdf-format for reviewing
* an abstract in pdf-format with your name and affiliation on it for
the abstract booklet
Please send abstracts to dany.jaspers@hubrussel.be.
Executive committee:
Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (HUB, CRISSP)
Guido Vanden Wyngaerd (HUB, CRISSP)
Joachim Sabel (Universit Catholique de Louvain, CRISSP)
Lobke Aelbrecht (HUB, CRISSP)
Marijke De Belder (HUB, CRISSP)
Karen De Clercq (HUB, CRISSP)
Organizing institutions:
University College Brussels (HUBrussel)
Catholic University of Leuven (KULeuven)
The local organizers gratefully acknowledge financial support by FWO,
the Flemish Research Foundation, and HUB.