CFP: Análisis Filosófico

CFP: The Adoption Problem in Logic

Journal: Análisis Filosófico (Special Issue)

Submission Deadlines: 

Abstract (500 words) (Not mandatory): November 1st

Full Paper: December 31st

Topic Areas

•20th Century Philosophy

•Epistemology

•Logic and Philosophy of Logic

Details 

Guest Editors: 

Eduardo Barrio (University of Buenos Aires - CONICET)

Romina Padró (City University of New York, Graduate Center – Saul Kripke Center)

Description: 

In a series of seminars and lectures dating back to the 1970s, Saul Kripke introduced what is now called ‘the adoption problem’ (see Padró 2015), based on his reading of Lewis Carroll’s “What the Tortoise Said to Achilles” (1895). The problem can be roughly summarized as follows: certain basic logical principles cannot be adopted because, if a subject already infers in accordance with them, no adoption is needed, and if the subject does not infer in accordance with them, no adoption is possible.

The adoption problem was originally one of the arguments Kripke offered against Putnam’s proposal for the revision of classical logic in favor of quantum logic as a way of solving the problems of interpreting quantum mechanics (Putnam 1968). In Kripke’s view, Putnam’s proposal and its Quinean background epistemology of logic are untenable. 

The adoption problem touches on some of the most debated topics in epistemology nowadays, such as anti-exceptionalism about logic, revision, rule-following, inferences, the justification of logic, and so on, and it has recently generated a lot of discussion, with papers by Besson (2019), Finn (2018, 2019), and forthcoming papers by Boghossian and Wright, Williamson, Cohnitz and Nicolai, and Padró (2020) and Kripke (2020) themselves, among others. 

All papers should address the ‘adoption problem’.

Related themes include: 

•The scope of the problem: can some logical principles be ‘adopted’?

•The distinction between knowledge how and knowledge that.

•Normativity and inferential practices.

•The adoption problem and the anti-exceptionalist/exceptionalist debate in logic.

•Are some basic logical principles special? 

•The moral of the adoption problem.

•What are the consequences of the adoption problem for the revision of logic?

References

Besson Corine 2019, “Knowledge of Logical Generality and the Possibility of Deductive Reasoning”, forthcoming in Timothy Chang and Anders Nes (eds), Inference and Consciousness, London: Routledge

Boghossian, Paul and Wright, Crispin (forthcoming), ‘Kripke, Quine, the ‘Adoption Problem’ and the Empirical Revisability of Logic”

Carroll, Lewis 1895, ‘What the Tortoise Said to Achilles’, in Mind 4

Cohnitz Daniel and Nicolai Carlo (forthcoming), ‘How to Adopt a Logic’, available at: https://carlonicolai.github.io/Adop5.pdf

Finn, Suki 2019, ‘The Adoption Problem and Anti-Exceptionalism about Logic’ in Australasian Journal of Logic 16

— — 2019, ‘Limiting Logical Pluralism’, in Synthese online first, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02134-8 

Kripke, Saul 2020, (forthcoming) ‘The Question of Logic’ 

Putnam, Hilary 1968, ‘Is Logic Empirical?’ in R. S. Cohen and M. Wartofsky (eds.), Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science 6 (Dordrecht: Reidel).

Padró, Romina 2015, ‘What the Tortoise Said to Kripke: the Adoption Problem and the Epistemology of Logic’, PhD thesis, available at https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/603/

— — (forthcoming), ‘The Adoption Problem and the Epistemology of Logic’ 

Instructions for submission: 

An initial abstract (500 words max.) should be submitted by November 1st, 2020. Not mandatory. (Please send abstracts to: [email protected]).

Full Paper Submission Deadline: December 31st, 2020.

Languages: English, Portuguese, and Spanish

For guidelines and instructions for authors, please visit: 

https://analisisfilosofico.org/index.php/af/about/submissions

Important dates: 

•November 1st, 2020: Abstract submission (500 words).

•December 30th, 2020: Full paper submission 

•April 1st, 2021: Final paper submission 

•June 1st, 2021: Publication                

Selection Procedure

Submitted papers will be peer-reviewed following the usual journal practice. 

For any further information, please contact the Guest Editors:

Eduardo Barrio ([email protected])

Romina Padró ([email protected])