Logic and Human Nature: Early Modern and Enlightenment Confluences

The theme of this conference is the redescription of logic as an art for directing and correcting the work of the operations of the mind in its search for truth in several quarters of early modern and Enlightenment philosophy. This historical approach to logic has been labelled ‘logic of ideas’ or ‘facultative logic’ and various assessments have been proposed of its significance for the history of logic or for the epistemology and scientific methodology of the period. We aim to address the foundational rationale of this type of logic, signalled by the appearance of ‘self-knowledge’ or ‘the knowledge of man’ among the aims of logic. That is to say, we aim to study the confluences between logic and the investigation of human nature, be it in the form of the early modern natural history of the understanding or of the Enlightenment science of man, and understand their historical and philosophical consequences. We aim to look at works presented or received as logics / arts of thinking, or at works on the human mind / human nature that use logical frameworks.