The Logic and Reasoning Institute promotes the interdisciplinary study of logic and reasoning at James Madison University. The Institute sponsors and encourages coursework and research, as well as promoting the teaching and application of logic across the university.
Mission:
The mission of the LRI is to develop and maintain an innovative, interdisciplinary undergraduate program in logic and reasoning, and to promote interdisciplinary research in logic, its application, and its pedagogy.
Goals:
The LRI will
- Foster collaboration among faculty and students in the study of logic and reasoning across disciplines
- Emphasize the key role of logic and formal reasoning in the humanities, sciences, and mathematics
- Develop and maintain a logic and reasoning minor
- Develop new and existing courses in logic and reasoning (including interdisciplinary and team-taught courses)
- Emphasize the philosophical foundations of logic and reasoning in and across the disciplines such as mathematics, the sciences, philosophy, and economics.
Dr. Elizabeth Brown (Mathematics/Philosophy) (brownet@jmu.edu) is director of the LRI.
Upcoming Collequium:
The next Logic & Reasoning colloquium is Tuesday, April 14 at 2:30 PM in Roop 103. The speaker is JMU's Jason Rosenhouse, author of Games for Your Mind: The History and Future of Logic Puzzles, among other works. Title and abstract below.
What Do We Learn From Carroll's Regress?
Abstract: In an 1895 paper, Lewis Carroll presented a potential paradox of logical inference. Roughly, his point was that a certain natural way of viewing the nature of inference led to an unacceptable infinite regress. Carroll himself was famously vague about the precise point he wished to make, and as a result a whole industry of papers has developed subjecting the regress to ever more minute analyses. We will present Carroll’s regress, describe some of the responses to it, and present some ideas of our own regarding the proper lesson to learn from it.
