Irving
LOGICA UNIVERSALIS
SPECIAL ISSUE
VAN HEIJENOORT CENTENARY
edited by
Irving H. Anellis
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis
Jean van Heijenoort
1912–1986
23 July 2012 marks the centenary of the birth of historian and
philosopher of logic Jean van Heijenoort, whose anthology _From Frege
to Gödel_ helped define the nature and scope of modern mathematical
logic for several generations of logicians and the canon of fundamental
works that comprise the text for the formative period of mathematical
logic as we know it today. His influence in the history of mathematical
logic was furthered by his work as the editor of the papers of Jacques
Herbrand and in his contributions to the publication of the
multi-volume _Collected Papers_ of Kurt Gödel. The articles, published
and unpublished, that were brought together in his _Selected Essays_
articulated his conception of the course of the origin and development
of mathematical logic. His _El dessarollo de la teoria de la
cuantificacion_ provided an exposition of the "family of formal
systems" that comprise quantification theory and its proof procedures:
the axiomatic method, itself comprised of Frege-type systems and
Hilbert-type systems; Herbrand quantification; natural deduction; and
the Gentzen sequent calculus, which van Heijenoort enumerated as the
four principal approaches to first-order predicate calculus. He briefly
examined the history of each and considered them in their classical,
intuitionistic, and minimal versions and compared the strengths and
weaknesses of each.
As editor of _From Frege to Gödel_, van Heijenoort exercised a critical
influence on the historiography of logic through much of the second
half of the twentieth century. Although aspects of his views on the
nature and scope of mathematical logic have more recently been
challenged, as have aspects of his conception of the history of
mathematical logic, his ideas remain of continuing influence among
historians and philosophers of logic and frequently serve as the
starting point in discussions which challenge his views, for example,
his often exaggerated emphasis on the pivotal work of Gottlob Frege and
corresponding comparative neglect of the contributions of Frege's
contemporaries among the algebraic logicians, and in particular of
Charles Sanders Peirce and Ernst Schröder. Thus van Heijenoort's work
continues to occupy a significant place in the historiography and
philosophy of logic.
In addition to his historical work, van Heijenoort left a body of
manuscripts and typescripts, many of which were distributed to a
handful of close colleagues and to his Brandeis University logic
students, and in which he explored the model-theoretic properties of
the falsifiability tree method, particularly its soundness and
completeness, and the relation between the truth tree and
falsifiability tree methods and its ancestors, in particular Herbrand
quantification and Beth tableaux. In his _Introduction a la semantique
des logiques non-classiques_, van Heijenoort applied the tree method to
intuitionistic and modal logic.
We invite contributions to the special issue of _Logica Universalis_
devoted to any and all aspects of van Heijenoort's work in logic, its
history and philosophy. Contributions for consideration should be sent
in PDF to the guest editor Irving H. Anellis at iane...@iupui.edu.
Initial submission: 31 January 2012
Preview copy: 31 March 2012
Final copy: 31 May 2012
Publication target date: 23 June 2012
Irving H. Anellis
Visiting Research Associate
Peirce Edition, Institute for American Thought
902 W. New York St.
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN 46202-5159
USA
URL: http://www.irvinganellis.info