Do logics explain?

Nicole Wyatt (University of Calgary)

Nicole Wyatt (Calgary) will present "Do logics explain?" at 11 in Arts West 212 West Wing on 20 September. This will be a remote talk.

Abstract: Anti-exceptionalists about logic often take it for granted that logics, like other scientific theories, both aim at providing explanations of some phenomena and  sometimes succeed in doing so. But perhaps logics don't aim to explain at all, and this is one of the ways in which logic is fundamentally different from the empirical sciences. In this talk I'll argue, unsurprisingly, that logics do explain, and along the way say something about the sort of evidence we might look for in support of the claim that explanations are the goal of some theoretically inquiry.