Wilfrid Hodges, DLMPS - Tarski's vision and ours

Conférence plénière du 19 juillet - CLMPS 2011 / Plenary lecture, Tue. 19 July - CLMPS 2011

The first International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science took place in 1960. So this present Congress in Nancy is an occasion for us to review the first fifty years of DLMPS Congresses and cast an eye forwards to the Division’s second fifty years. The form of DLMPS was the result of several influences. In the aftermath of the SecondWorldWar, the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) gave itself the task of setting up and coordinating International Scientific Unions; the administrative form of DLMPS comes mainly from its ICSU connection. The Division’s sphere of interest was the result of a tug of war between philosophers of science (notably Ferdinand Gonseth) and logicians (notably Evert W. Beth and Alfred Tarski). The historians report that the logicians had the better of the fight, largely through Tarski’s dominance. Today we should ask whether our administrative form still makes good use of the possibilities, and whether our inherited sphere of interest is appropriate for the present situation in logic and philosophy of science.