Female Logicians: Their Impact on Modern Logic

The proclamation of World Logic Day by UNESCO, in association with the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH), intends to bring the intellectual history, conceptual significance and practical implications of logic to the attention of interdisciplinary science communities and the broader public. In this context, our workshop aims to focus on and critically discuss female logicians who have played an extraordinary role in the history and philosophy of logic, advocating at the same time for gender equality in order to make logic more open, diverse and effective. Parallels will be drawn with well-known figures of logic (e.g. Peirce, Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein) and a critical look will be taken at the historiography of logic, which still resonates today. In this way, technical know-how is to be combined with interdisciplinary research, problem-solving and social competencies. To name a few examples: Charles Sanders Peirce gave Christine Ladd-Franklin’s Algebra of Logic a prominent place in Studies in Logic, which he edited and published in 1883. Today, the American philosopher, mathematician and pragmatist feminist Christine Ladd-Franklin, whose intellectual achievements had been marginalized for a long time, is rediscovered in the history of logic. Another example: Compared to the “logical heroes” like Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein Margaret Masterman’s early work on logic, language and machine translation or Alice Ambrose role in Postwar US Women’s Education are so far almost unknown. Not to mention Ruth Barcan Marcus’ works on modal logic or Val Plumford’s contributions to paraconsistent logic. We aim to discuss challenges and perspectives in order to better integrate women into the history and philosophy of logic and to bring together experts with young scholars who are researching and working on female logicians. The event will conclude with a round table discussion. Andrea Reichenberger will present some unpublished and unknown contributions (including dissertations) of female logicians to Frege, Hilbert and Gödel, and we will address questions like the following: How to bridge the gender gap in logic? How to use digital tools to make female logicians more visible? How should a gender-sensitive road map for digital history look like? Francine F. Abeles, Professor Emerita at Kean University in Union, NJ, USA, is invited as a special guest. She was Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science and head of the graduate programs (master’s level) in mathematics, computing, statistics, and mathematics education. She has co-edited a proceedings of the Canadian Society for The History and Philosophy of Mathematics, and edited three volumes in the pamphlets of Lewis Carroll series for the University Press of Virginia. She is the author of nearly one hundred papers in journals on topics in geometry, number theory, voting theory, linear algebra, logic, and their history.

The event will conclude with a round table discussion. Andrea Reichenberger will present some unpublished and unknown contributions (including dissertations) of female logicians to Frege, Hilbert and Gödel, and we will address questions like the following: How to bridge the gender gap in logic? How to use digital tools to make female logicians more visible? How should a gender-senstive road map for digital history look like? Francine F. Abeles, Ursula Martin and Carolin Antos-Kuby are invited as special guests. Francine F. Abeles was Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Kean University in Union, NJ, USA and head of the graduate programs (master’s level) in mathematics, computing, statistics, and mathematics education. She has co-edited a proceedings of the Canadian Society for The History and Philosophy of Mathematics, and edited three volumes in the pamphlets of Lewis Carroll series for the University Press of Virginia. She is the author of nearly one hundred papers in journals on topics in geometry, number theory, voting theory, linear algebra, logic, and their history. Particularly noteworthy is her co-editorship of the book Modern Logic 1850–1950, East and West (2016), together with Mark E. Fuller, now emeritus Professor of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin at Janesville. Ursula Martin is a Professor at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh and a Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College Oxford. She is best known for her works on Ada Lovelace and her activities aimed at encouraging women in the fields of computing and mathematics. She works at the interface of mathematics and computer science, where her contributions include an explanation of the power of logic for reasoning about practical systems with feedback, and results linking randomness and symmetry. Carolin Antos-Kuby is a Juniorprofessorin (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Konstanz and a Research Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg. She is working in the philosophy of mathematics and logic, with a focus on forcing as a mathematical technique and a philosophical concept.