CFA: The Shape of Thought: Diagrams in Philosophy, Logic, and Science

Keynote speakers:

• Karine Chemla (Paris 7, France)

• More TBA

Call for abstracts:

The Shape of Thought invites submissions of abstracts for presentations on the use and significance of diagrams and visual representations in philosophy, logic, and science. We welcome formal, philosophical, historical, and interdisciplinary contributions examining how diagrams represent information, structure concepts, support inference, and shape processes of reasoning and understanding. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• The use of diagrams in various cultural and intellectual traditions

• Diagrams and the nature of reasoning

• Diagrammatic reasoning and logical inference

• The history of diagrams in logic and philosophy

• Ancient and medieval diagrammatic traditions

• Diagrams in mathematical and scientific reasoning

• Visual representations and scientific explanation

• Diagrams, proof, and demonstration

• Diagrammatic logic and formal systems

• The epistemology of visual reasoning

• Cognitive approaches to diagrammatic reasoning

• Visualisation and abstraction

• Diagrams, models, and scientific representation

• The limits and possibilities of diagrammatic reasoning

• Comparisons between linguistic, symbolic, and diagrammatic forms of representation

We particularly welcome contributions that combine formal, philosophical, historical, and scientific perspectives, and that investigate how the form of a representation can influence what can be thought, inferred, communicated, or known.

Submission deadline: 1 October 2026

Notifications: by 30 October 2026.

Please submit an abstract of 500 words to [email protected] indicating the name of the session.

To learn more about CAELO 1 and discover its other special sessions, please visit the main event website: