B11: Abductive Methodology in the Philosophy of Logic

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Elke Brendel
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 288923097

The central aim of this project is to investigate whether and to what extent abductive methods can be employed in theory choice and revision in logic. We will review and critically assess the current debate on logical anti-exceptionalism as a reaction to more traditional conceptions of the nature and the methodology of logic. Logical anti-exceptionalists maintain that there is a significant continuity between logic and the empirical sciences. They argue that, just as it is customary in the sciences, the evaluation of logical systems follows an abductive methodology. Specifically, the anti-exceptionalists hold that logic is open to revision on the basis of empirical considerations and theory choice in logic is made on the basis of a core set of theoretical virtues such as simplicity, explanatory power and unification. This is in stark opposition to traditional views which conceive of logic as being empirically indefeasible, a priori, and essentially normative in exerting, in virtue of its very nature, constraints on how rational agents ought to reason. In order to address the main aim of the project, the research will be organised in four work packages.First, we will clarify the nature of logical anti-exceptionalism and investigate its significance in relation to logical apriorism and logical pluralism. Second, we will develop a systematic classification of the most important abductive criteria for selecting a logic with the aim of explaining how different weightings of these criteria may affect our theory choice. Third, the project will zoom in on a crucial case study for assessing the effectiveness of abductive methodology in theory choice in logic, namely the case of semantic paradoxes. Fourth, we will investigate in what sense logic is a normative discipline and whether and to what extent logic’s normativity fits an anti-exceptionalist conception of logic.The results of this project will be highly relevant for the activities of this research unit. Given that logic is arguably an indispensable tool in conducting metaphysical enquiry, investigating the viability of an abductive methodology in the philosophy of logic will significantly contribute to evaluate the prospects of inductive metaphysics in general.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 2495: Inductive Metaphysics