Logic and the Social World

Rohit Parikh (CUNY Graduate Center)

This work is motivated by the perception that there is a gap between two communities. One community consists of mathematicians and logicians. The other community consists of social scientists and philosophers. The second community is keenly interested in the problems of society. But it lacks the tools to understand the way in which mathematical and logical tools help with these problems. The first community does have the technical tools, or has the expertise to easily adapt the existing tools to social problems. But they lack the interest. Thus important work on the problems of society is simply not being done. Thus I am appealing to people to address this lacuna.