Department of logic

The research program of the Department of Logic covers a broad spectrum of topics from the field of logic and analytically oriented philosophy. It specializes on the philosophical aspects of logical theories and on the application of logical methods in philosophy, but it involves also the mathematical and historical aspects of logic.

The program focuses particularly on the logical analysis of natural language. Department members deal both with the general problems of the relationship between logical calculi and our informal argumentation, and with the analysis of specific kinds of sentences and arguments within the framework of languages of individual logical calculi. A specific sub-project of the investigation of the possibilities of the logical analysis of natural language is the development of the so-called transparent intensional logic, a specific logical system originally proposed by Pavel Tichý and in the Department currently elaborated by its doyen Pavel Materna.

Department members also involve themselves with both the philosophical and the technical aspects of non-classical logical systems such as deontic logic, erotetic logic and various kinds of epistemic logics.

Another substantial project of the Department is in the field of normativity, investigating general aspects of rules: their origin, nature and their role not only within the framework of logic, but more generally within human communities and within specifically human thought. A specific sub-project of this research program is the development of the so-called inferentialism, a logico-philosophical doctrine that sees the basis of all kinds of meaning in the inferential roles of expressions. This project is associated especially with the name of Jaroslav Peregrin and his collaborators.