The Leo Apostel Center

in collaboration with the Doctoral Programme of the VUB invites
everyone to the 38th of its interdisciplinary seminars in the
Foundations series. In this series CLEA invites scholars that are
actively engaged in the research on the foundations of a particular
discipline. Their lectures will always be directed to an
interdisciplinary audience, and the discussions aim at confronting
the foundations of the different disciplines.



 T H E   L O G I C   O F   R E A S O N I N G   I N   S C I E N C E
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                   by Prof. Dr. R. Wojcicki
             Institute of Philosophy and Sociology
              of the Polish Academy of Sciences




Friday, June 11, 1999 at 5 p.m. in room C 207 (building C, 3th floor)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Campus Oefenplein

About the lecture

Mathematics, philosophy, investigation in natural and formal
languages, computer science and cognitive sciences all inspire the
research in logic. Mistakenly, methodology of science is not in this
list. Contrary to what is generally claimed, reasoning in science is
essentially different from reasoning in mathematics. The scheme of
logical deduction should be exchanged by a scheme of heuristic
deduction, in which the 'explicit' premises should be completed with
heuristic and implicit premises. Different kinds of heuristic
reasoning are proposed including both mathematical and factual
heuristic premises. In applied reasoning theoretical adequacy,
correct selection of auxiliary assumptions, and attempted
completeness in inclusion of relevant factors are necessary.

About the speaker

Ryszard W—jcicki is professor of philosophy of science and formal
logic at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish
Academy of Sciences. His main publications are 'Topics in Formal
Methodology of Empirical Sciences' (1979), 'Theory of Logical
Calculi' (1988), 'Teorie w nauce; wstep do logiki, metodologii i
filozofii nauki Cz.I' (Theories in Science; an Introduction to Logic,
Methodology and Philosophy of Science in Polish, Part I) (1991). He
is editor-in-chief of Studia Logica, an International Journal for
Symbolic Logic; former Editor-in-chief of Foundations of Science, and
president of AFOS (Association for the Foundations of Science,
Language and Cognition), Advisory editor of Erkenntnis and Poznan
Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities; Past
President of the Polish Association for Logic and Philosophy of
Science; Member of the Steering Committee of FISP Federation
Internationale des SociŽtŽs de Philosophie; Chairman of the Committee
for Philosophy of the Polish Academy of Sciences; Visiting Fellow of
the Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh.

The presentation with questions will last about an hour. Afterwards,
an hour or more is reserved for an in-depth, group discussion of the
topic.

More info at the CLEA office: phone 02-644 26 77 or via the Web-page:
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CLEA/