Human beings are called logical animals because they are endowed with the ability to reason. Logic is a science that deals with the rules and processes used in reasoning and as such plays a fundamental and foundational role throughout science. As part of the World Logic Day 2024 logicians across the globe are invited to join in a virtual event on 13 January 2024 to celebrate the World Logic Day in Nigeria. 

The zoom meeting will be featuring talks around the role and applications of logic (classical and non-classical) in different areas of research, and it is open to anyone interested in logic in the fields of Mathematics, Philosophy, Computer Science and other related areas.

See here for a Flyer (PDF, external link).

The registered participants can be found here.

Is Logic Neutral?
  Timothy Williamson (University of Oxford)

Many philosophers understand logic as a kind of neutral referee for disputes between scientific or metaphysical theories about reality, which blows the whistle when players break the rules of argument, but is not itself a player, since it has nothing of its own to say about reality. I will argue that such an account does not make proper sense of how current disputes between proponents of different systems of logic actually work. Just about every salient logical principle has been challenged on metaphysical or scientific grounds. However, I will also argue that this does not justify scepticism about logic, because mathematics depends on logic and so provides an excellent testing-ground for systems of logic. Accepting classical mathematics while rejecting classical logic is much harder to defend than is often realized.

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The Logic of the African Philosophical Tradition

Jonathan O Chimakonam (University of Pretoria)

Philosophy deals with concepts. It is a critical, constructive, systematic, prescriptive and second-order study of the world. Various philosophical traditions undertake this study through the agential (individualistic) or collective (communitarian) approach. Leading African thinkers have theorised that the African thought system is largely communitarian, indicating a shift from bivalent logic. How then should we frame the logic of the African philosophical tradition? I will highlight the three attempts by members of the Calabar School, Innocent Asouzu (complementary logic), Chris Ijiomah (harmonious monism) and Jonathan O Chimakonam (Ezumezu logic) in developing a truth glut type of three-valued logic to ground the statements of African philosophy. Focusing on Ezumezu logic, I will map the trajectory of African philosophy as a tradition, and discuss its basic concepts and principles.

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The Logic of Soft MGroup Theory and Applications
Onoyima Nichodemus Emeka (Kaduna State University)

The foundation of modern mathematics is believed to having mathematical logic and set theory as the two pillars. In 1999 Molodtsov introduced the concept of soft set theory as a general mathematical tool for dealing with uncertainty, the trend of which led to soft mgroups. In this presentation, the essence of soft mgroup theory initiated by Nazmul and Samanta (2015), is further investigated. The root set of a soft mgroup is found to be a soft group. We investigate the possible applications of soft mgroups in providing a powerful framework for studying and understanding the structure and properties of groups. Soft mgroup theory can be utilized in homological algebra, specifically in the study of soft chain complexes and in risk management and decision making. This presentation aims to contribute to the celebration of Word Logic Day by promoting cutting-edge research in the area of soft mgroup theory and its potential on various real-world applications.  

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The Catuṣkoṭi, the Saptabhaṇgī, and Paraconsistent Logic
Graham Priest (City University of New York & University of Melbourne)

The catuṣkoṭi  (“four points”) is a venerable principle of Buddhist logic/metaphysics. The saptabhaṇgī (“seven categories”)  is a venerable principle of Jain logic/metaphysics. Neither of them makes much sense in “classical” (aka Frege/Russell) logic. However, applying well known techniques of non-classical logic shows how they may be understood. Doing this produces some modern paraconsistent logics (logics where Explosion fails).  In this talk, I will show how.