The Metaphysics of Logic

Featuring fourteen new essays from an international team of renowned contributors, this volume explores the key issues, debates and questions in the metaphysics of logic. The book is structured in three parts, looking first at the main positions in the nature of logic, such as realism, pluralism, relativism, objectivity, nihilism, conceptualism, and conventionalism, then focusing on historical topics such as the medieval Aristotelian view of logic, the problem of universals, and Bolzano's logical realism. The final section tackles specific issues such as glutty theories, contradiction, the metaphysical conception of logical truth, and the possible revision of logic. The volume will provide readers with a rich and wide-ranging survey, a valuable digest of the many views in this area, and a long overdue investigation of logic's relationship to us and the world. It will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students of philosophy, logic, and mathematics.

Introduction Penelope Rush; Part I. The Main Positions: 1. Logical realism Penelope Rush; 2. A defence of logical conventionalism Jody Azzouni; 3. Pluralism, relativism, and objectivity Stewart Shapiro; 4. Logic, mathematics and conceptual structuralism Solomon Feferman; 5. A Second Philosophy of logic Penelope Maddy; 6. Logical nihilism Curtis Franks; 7. Wittgenstein and the covert Platonism of mathematical logic Mark Steiner; Part II. History and Authors: 8. Logic and its objects: a medieval Aristotelian view Paul Thom; 9. The problem of universals and the subject matter of logic Gyula Klima; 10. Logics and worlds Ermanno Bencivenga; 11. Bolzano's logical realism Sandra Lapointe; Part III. Specific Issues: 12. Revising logic Graham Priest; 13. Glutty theories and the logic of antinomies J. C. Beall, Michael Hughes and Ross Vandegrift; 14. The metaphysical interpretation of logical truth Tuomas E. Tahko; References; Index.

Penelope Rush is Honorary Associate with the School of Philosophy and Online Lecturer for Student Learning at the University of Tasmania. She has published articles in journals including Logic and Logical Philosophy, Review of Symbolic Logic, South African Journal of Philosophy, Studia Philosophica Estonica, and Logique et Analyse. She is also the author of The Paradoxes of Mathematical, Logical, and Scientific Realism (forthcoming).