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CfP special issue of Logica Universalis: "Jean van Heijenoort Centenary", Deadline: 31 Jan 2012

LOGICA UNIVERSALIS

SPECIAL ISSUE

JEAN VAN HEIJENOORT CENTENARY

edited by
Irving H. Anellis
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis



Jean van Heijenoort
19121986


23 July 2012 marks the centenary of the birth of historian and philosopher of 
logic Jean van Heijenoort, whose anthology From Frege to Goedel helped define 
the nature and scope of modern mathematical logic for several generations of 
logicians and the canon of fundamental works that comprise the text for the 
formative period of mathematical logic as we know it today. His influence in 
the history of mathematical logic was furthered by his work as the editor of 
the papers of Jacques Herbrand and in his contributions to the publication of 
the multi-volume Collected Works of Kurt Gdel. The articles, published and 
unpublished, that were brought together in his Selected Essays articulated his 
conception of the course of the origin and development of mathematical logic. 
His El dessarollo de la teoria de la cuantificacion provided an exposition of 
the "family of formal systems" that comprise quantification theory and its 
proof procedures: the axiomatic method, itself comprised of Frege-type systems 
and Hilbert-type systems; Herbrand quantification; natural deduction; and the 
Gentzen sequent calculus, which van Heijenoort enumerated as the four principal 
approaches to first-order predicate calculus. He briefly examined the history 
of each and considered them in their classical, intuitionistic, and minimal 
versions and compared the strengths and weaknesses of each.

As editor of From Frege to Goedel, van Heijenoort exercised a critical 
influence on the historiography of logic through much of the second half of the 
twentieth century. Although aspects of his views on the nature and scope of 
mathematical logic have more recently been challenged, as have aspects of his 
conception of the history of mathematical logic, his ideas remain of continuing 
influence among historians and philosophers of logic and frequently serve as 
the starting point in discussions which challenge his views, for example, his 
often exaggerated emphasis on the pivotal work of Gottlob Frege and 
corresponding comparative neglect of the contributions of Frege's 
contemporaries among the algebraic logicians, and in particular of Charles 
Sanders Peirce and Ernst Schrder. Thus van Heijenoort's work continues to 
occupy a significant place in the historiography and philosophy of logic.

In addition to his historical work, van Heijenoort left a body of manuscripts 
and typescripts, many of which were distributed to a handful of close 
colleagues and to his Brandeis University logic students, and in which he 
explored the model-theoretic properties of the falsifiability tree method, 
particularly its soundness and completeness, and the relation between the truth 
tree and falsifiability tree methods and its ancestors, in particular Herbrand 
quantification and Beth tableaux. In his Introduction a la smantique des 
logiques non-classiques, van Heijenoort applied the tree method to 
intuitionistic and modal logic.

We invite contributions to the special issue of Logica Universalis devoted to 
any and all aspects of van Heijenoort?s work in logic, its history and 
philosophy. Contributions for consideration should be sent in PDF to the guest 
editor Irving H. Anellis at ianellis@iupui.edu.


Publication schedule:
Initial submission: 31 January 2012
Preview copy: 31 March 2012
Final copy: 31 May 2012
Publication target date: 23 July 2012



Sincerely,

Irving H. Anellis
Visiting Research Associate
Peirce Edition, Institute for American Thought
902 W. New York St.
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN 46202-5159
USA
URL: http://www.irvinganellis.info