Logic and Reality: Essays on the Legacy of Arthur Prior

by B. Jack Copeland

Logic and Reality is a collection of essays by philosophers, logicians, mathematicians, and computer scientists, celebrating the work of the late distinguished philosopher Arthur Prior on the eightieth anniversary of his birth. Topics range from philosophical discussions of the nature of time and of the nature of logic itself, to descriptions of computer systems that can reason and take account of the fact that they exist in a temporal world.

Hardcover

First published May 15, 1997

About the author

Brian Jack Copeland is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand and author of books on computing pioneer Alan Turing.

Reviews

[Alex Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Logic deals strictly with propositions. So while the book is about logic and reality, essentially the question here is, regarding the nature of what is real, does logic in fact match up?

This collection of essays deals with sentence logic -- ideas such as tense, modality, identity and nominalism are all explored in detail.

The nature of this collection expands over several different schools of thought, approaches, and attempts to weld them together in order to address the question: can logic speak of reality, or at least bring reality to some kind of bearing of consistency so that logic and reality are the both preserved?

I am not an expert at this field, but it is useful to see the limits of how logic can be formulated within this subject matter.

The initial conclusion for me is that logic is of a world removed from reality, even if it refers to this world.

[Mirlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed "Some Free Thinking About Time"