Logic and Knowledge

The problematic relation between logic and knowledge has given rise to some of the most important works in the history of philosophy, from Books VI VII of Plato s Republic and Aristotle s Prior and Posterior Analytics, to Kant s Critique of Pure Reason and Mill s A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive. It provides the title of an important collection of papers by Bertrand Russell (Logic and Knowledge. Essays, 1901 1950). However, it has remained an underdeveloped theme in the last century, because logic has been treated as separate from knowledge. This book does not hope to make up for a century-long absence of discussion. Rather, its ambition is to call attention to the theme and stimulating renewed reflection upon it. The book collects essays of leading figures in the field and it addresses the theme as a topic of current debate, or as a historical case study, or when appropriate as both. Each essay is followed by the comments of a younger discussant, in an attempt to transform what might otherwise appear as a monologue into an ongoing dialogue; each section begins with an historical essay and ends with an essay by one of the editors.