Seminario di Dipartimento (SeRiC): "Mind the Gap: languages of diagrammatic logic"

Partecipanti: James Burton - University of Brighton

In computer science, applications for logical diagrams include ontology engineering and formal verification of software, and this is the background of the speaker.

From this perspective, the most tractable research question has been the formalisation of increasingly expressive notations, relegating the problem of "why use diagrams rather than sentential logics?" to the sidelines.

To find an answer to this question we need to look outside computer science and formal logic to other disciplines. The most relevant of these for the speaker are empirical cognitive science and Peircean semiotics, and the degree to which different disciplines have tackled the same problems in different ways is immediately apparent.

The development of diagrams for the Indian logic Navya-Nyaya is used as a case study of the design and analysis of a logical notation, as informed by Peirce's analysis of signs. In the process, we aim to give an account of a journey from the "how" to the "why" of logical diagrams, and demonstrate some of the consequences of this inherently cross-disciplinary question.