Logic and Scientific Methods Volume One of the Tenth International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Florence, August 1995

This is the first of two volumes comprising the papers submitted for publication by the invited participants to the Tenth International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, held in Florence, August 1995. The Congress was held under the auspices of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science.
The invited lectures published in the two volumes demonstrate much of what goes on in the fields of the Congress and give the state of the art of current research. The two volumes cover the traditional subdisciplines of mathematical logic and philosophical logic, as well as their interfaces with computer science, linguistics and philosophy. Philosophy of science is broadly represented, too, including general issues of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. The papers in Volume One are concerned with logic, mathematical logic, the philosophy of logic and mathematics, and computer science.

President’s address.- Section 1 Proof theory and categorical logic.- Proof-theoretical aspects of self-referential truth.- Free lattices, communication and money games.- On methods for proving lower bounds in propositional logic.- On bounded set theory.- Section 2 Model theory, set theory and formal systems.- Infinitary logic in finite model theory.- Decision problems for second-order linear logic.- Comparing the continuum with the first two uncountable cardinals.- Section 3 Recursion theory and constructivism.- Church’s thesis and Hume’s problem.- The logic of functional recursion.- From higher order terms to circuits.- Computability and enumerability.- Mechanistic theories in cognitive science: the import of Turing’s thesis.- Section 5 Philosophical logic.- Conjoining and disjoining on different levels.- Logical consequence: a turn in style.- Applying normative rules with restraint.- Section 10 Philosophy of logic, mathematics and computer science.- What can we do “in principle”?.- Causation, action, and counterfactuals.- Symposium 1 Logic and philosophy of science: current interfaces.- Logic and philosophy of science: current interfaces.- Reliable belief revision.- Explanatory translation: beyond functionalism and reductionism.- Abductive reasoning: logic, visual thinking, and coherence.- Can the laws of nature (physics) be complete?.- Symposium 4 Logic in Central and Eastern Europe.- Logic in Central and Eastern Europe.- Logic in Czechoslovakia and Hungary.- Mathematical logic in the former Soviet Union: brief history and current trends.- Logic in Central and Eastern Europe: Balkan region.- The postwar panorama of logic in Poland.- Closing address.- Structure and perspective: philosophical perplexity and paradox.- Table of contents Vol. II.

Professor Dr J.F.A.K. van Benthem has received the 1996 Spinoza Award, an annual award to honour outstanding scientific merit and to stimulate innovative future research.

from the jury report:
`Van Benthem has positioned logic as an interdisciplinary science par excellence ... It is through his work that logic has acquired a bridge-function between alpha and gamma sciences on the one side and beta sciences on the other ... Van Benthem is a stimulating and innovative researcher, which explains his great attraction to young researchers. Under his inspirational guidance 38 promovendi from the Netherlands and abroad have finished their theses. In view of Van Benthem's innovative powers and the high level of his research, a number of initiatives are to be expected from him that will further strengthen the Dutch position of logic, more especially so in connection with the formal study of natural language.'