The Intellectual Journey of an Eminent LogicianPhilosopher.docx

The Intellectual Journey of an Eminent LogicianPhilosopher.docx

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TheIntellectualJourneyofanEminentLogicianPhilosopher

TheIntellectualJourneyofanEminentLogician-Philosopher

--AnInterviewWithSusanHaack

ChenBo

ABSTRACTIn2002,atUniversityofMiami,USA,ChenBomadeanlonginterviewwithSusanHaackwhoisaneminentlogician-philosopherintheworld.Inthisinterview,theytalkedaboutHaack’sintellectualbackground,andherstudiesinphilosophyoflogic,epistemology,metaphysics,pragmatism,philosophyofscience,post-moderntrends,especiallyHaack’sownphilosophy,e.g,logicalpluralism,foundherentism,criticalcommon-sensism,innocentrealism.

KEYWORDSrevisabilityoflogic,logicalpluralism,foundherentism,pragmatism,criticalcommon-sensism,innocentrealism.

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SusanHaack[hereafterSH],M.A.,B.Phil.Oxford,Ph.D.Cambridge,formerlyProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniversityofWarwick（U.K）,iscurrentlyCooperSeniorScholarinArtsandSciences,ProfessorofPhilosophy,andProfessorofLawattheUniversityofMiami（U.S.A.）.SheistheauthorofDeviantLogic（Cambridge,1974）;PhilosophyofLogics（Cambridge,1978）,EvidenceandInquiry:

TowardsReconstructioninEpistemology（Blackwell,1993）;DeviantLogic,FuzzyLogic:

BeyondtheFormalism,（Chicago,1996）;ManifestoofaPassionateModerate:

UnfashionableEssays（Chicago,1998）,andDefendingScience--WithinReason（forthcoming）;andofnumerousarticlesonphilosophyoflogicandlanguage,epistemologyandmetaphysics,pragmatism,feminism,philosophyofscience,andscientifictestimonyincourt.HerworkhasbeentranslatedintoSpanish,French,Portuguese,Italian,German,Polish,Russian,Danish,KoreanandChinese.Avolumeofessaysonherworkisinpreparation.

ChenBo[hereafterCB],Ph.D.,ChinaRenminUniversity,isProfessorofPhilosophyatPekingUniversity,P.R.China.In2002-3heheldaCCSCfellowshipawardedbytheAmericanCouncilofLearnedSocieties,theSocialSciencesResearchCouncil,andtheNationalAcademyofSciences,asaVisitingScholarintheDepartmentofPhilosophyattheUniversityofMiami.

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CB:

ProfessorHaack,I'mverygladtohavethisopportunitytointerviewyou.BecauseofyourbookPhilosophyofLogicsyouarewellknowninlogicalcirclesinChina,butweknowlittleaboutyoupersonally.Couldyoutellussomethingaboutyourself?

SH:

Well,let'ssee:

IwasborninEnglandafterWorldWarII.Iwaseducatedatstateprimaryandgrammarschools;atOxford,whereIearnedfirstmyB.A.inPhilosophy,Politics,andEconomics,andthentheB.Phil.inPhilosophy（IalsoreceivedtheM.A.,butatOxfordthisisaformality）;andthenatCambridge,whereIearnedmyPh.D.whileteachingatNewHall,aCambridgewomen'scollege.Iwasthefirstpersoninmyfamilyevertogotouniversity.Still,lookingback,Ithinkmyphilosophicaleducationprobablybeganwithmy（maternal）grandparents,whohadlittleformalschooling,butentertainedmebyteachingmechallengingcardgamesandintroducingmetothewordpuzzlespublishedinthenewspapers--whichIsooncametorelishasmuchasmygrandmotherdid;perhapsthiswastheseedthateventuallygrewintomycrosswordanalogyforthestructureofevidence.

AtOxford,whereIwasastudentatSt.Hilda'sCollege,myfirstphilosophyteacherwasJeanAustin（widowofJ.L.Austin）;afterthat,IstudiedPlatowithGilbertRyle,andlogicwithMichaelDummett.IwrotemyB.Phil.dissertationunderthesupervisionofDavidPears;itstopic,ambiguity,foreshadowedmylaterconvictionthatmanyimportantphilosophicalmistakesaretheresultofequivocations.AtCambridge,whereIwrotemyPh.D.underthesupervisionofTimothySmiley,IwasajuniorcolleagueofElizabethAnscombe,thennewlyappointedasProfessorofphilosophy,andcontinuedmyphilosophicaleducationbywayofouroften-heatedlunch-timeconversations.

AfterCambridge,Itaughtforalmosttwentyyears（1971-90）inthephilosophydepartmentattheUniversityofWarwick,oneofthenewuniversitiessetupinBritaininthe1960s.ItwasatWarwickthatIpreparedDeviantLogicforpublication,wrotePhilosophyofLogics,beganseriouslyreadingtheAmericanPragmatists,andstartedworkonEvidenceandInquiry.IjoinedthedepartmentofphilosophyattheUniversityofMiamiin1990,andacoupleofyearslatercompletedEvidenceandInquiry.Isoonfoundmyinterestsdrawnintwonewdirections:

Ibeganworkfirstonculturalandsocialissuesintersectingwithmyworkinepistemologyandwithpragmatism;andthenonquestionsabouttheroleofexpert,andespeciallyscientific,testimonyinthecourts.AndsoIwrotetheessaysinManifestoofaPassionateModerate,includingtwopiecesontheextravagancesofself-styled"culturalcritics"ofsciencethateventuallyledtomymostrecentbook,DefendingScience--WithinReason;andbegantoteachandpublishontheinteractionsofsciencewiththelaw.Theseinterestsarereflectedinmypresentposition:

asCooperSeniorScholarIteachaninterdisciplinarycourseeachyearfortheCollegeofArtsandSciences,andasProfessorofLawIteachacourseonthelawofscientifictestimony.

WhileIwasatWarwickIalsoheldvisitingpositionsinCanada,SouthAfrica,Australia,andtheUnitedStates.Inthelasttenyearsorso,besidesextensivetravelsintheU.S.andCanada,IhavemademanyprofessionalvisitstoEurope,especiallySpain（whereIwasvisitingprofessorattheUniversityofSantiagodeCompostela）,andScandinavia（whereIwasvisitingprofessoratAarhusUniversityinDenmark）;andalsotoBrazil.Ilearnedinthe1980sthatLoYihadtranslatedPhilosophyofLogicsintoChinese,butIonlyrecentlydiscoveredthatthisbookofminewaswell-knowninChina,thattranslationsofseveralexcerptshadalreadybeenpublished,andthatLoYi'stranslationofthebookistoappearwithCommercialPress.OfcourseIamverypleasedthatnow,withyourtranslationofEvidenceandInquiryunderway,andourcollaborationaseditors-in-chiefofRenminUniversityPress'sseries,ContemporaryWesternPhilosophyinTranslation,IamabletocommunicatewithcolleaguesinChinatoo.

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CB:

DeviantLogic,yourfirstbook（listedinPhilosophyofScience,LogicandMathematicsinthe20thCenturyintheRoutledgeHistoryofPhilosophy,Vol.IX,1996）,waspublishedin1974,andreprintedinanew,enlargededitionin1996.Whatdoyouthinkwerethemostimportantideaspresentedinthisbook?

SH:

Iwouldsay:

myarticulationofthedistinctionbetweendeviantandextendedlogics;mydefenseoftheideathatlogicisrevisable;andmydetailedstudiesofthemotivationforsomeproposedrevisionsof"classical"logic,thetwo-valued,unifiedpropositionalandpredicatecalculusweinheritedfromFrege,Peirce,Russell,etc.:

logicsofvagueness,freelogics,three-valuedlogicsforfuturecontingents,Intuitionistlogics,andquantumlogics.（Ilearnedaboutfuzzylogicandrelevancelogics,bothofwhichIdiscussedinmynextbook,onlyafterIfinishedDeviantLogic.）

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CB:

Inyourview,classicallogicisrevisable.Myquestionis:

inwhatrespectscouldclassicallogicbe,orhasitbeen,revised?

Whatkindsoflogicalsystemaregenuinelydeviant?

Ithasbeenclaimedthatdeviantlogicschangethemeaningsofthelogicalconnectives,sothatthereisnorealconflict,norealrivalry,betweensupposedlydeviantsystemsandtheclassicalsystem.Whatdoyouthink?

SH:

Whetherapparentlydeviantlogicsaregenuinelyrivalsofclassicallogic,oraremerelynotationalvariantsoftheclassicalsystem（aquestionputontheagendaofphilosophyoflogicbyQuine）wasdiscussedatlengthinDeviantLogic.Iarguedthatchangeofmeaningoftheconnectivesisinsufficienttoshowthatthereisnorealrivalry;andthat,inanycase,thereisnogoodgeneralargumentthatdeviantlogicsmustinvariablyinvolvechangeofmeaning.

ButasIsaidintheIntroductiontothenew,1996editionofthebook,thoughIstillholdthatitispossiblethatclassicallogicshouldturnouttobeinneedofrevision,Iwouldn'tapproachthequestionofrevisabilityinquitethesamewayIdidearlier,whichInowfindtoosuperficiallylinguistic.Rather,Iwoulddistinguishthequestionofthenecessityofthelawsoflogicfromthequestionofourfallibilityaboutwhatthoselawsare;andwouldstressthelatter.Itismostimplausibletosupposethatweareimmunefrommistakeinbelievingexactlythese,classicalprinciplestobe,letalonetobeall,thereallawsoflogic;especially,Iwouldadd,giventhatthelogicalsystemwenowcall"classical"wasarrivedatonlyafteralongandarduoushistory,andthat,evenasitwasachievingitscanonicalarticulationinFregeandPeirce,non-classicalsystemswerealreadyunderexploration--byHughMcColl,forexample,andbyPeircehimself.

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CB:

YoualsoarguedinDeviantLogicthat,thoughlogicisrevisable,wewouldneedtohavegoodreasonsbeforerevisingclassicallogic;andthatinmanyinstancesthereasonsforproposeddeviationsfromclassicallogichavebeenquiteweak.Whyisthat?

SH:

Well,insomecasesthemotivationsseemtomequiteunconvincing.Forexample,IarguedintheoriginaleditionofDeviantLogicthatLukasiewicz'sargumentforathree-valuedlogictorepresentfuturecontingents（whichhesawasderivedfromAristotle）,restsonamodalfallacy;andIargueintheneweditionofDeviantLogicthattheargumentsforfuzzylogicarebadlyconfused,andtheproposalthatweneedanon-classical"feministlogic"islaughable.Butinothercasethemotivationsgoquitedeep.ThankstotheworkofmyformerstudentDr.RobertLane,forexample,wenowunderstandPeirce'smotivationforhistriadiclogic（theearliest