FIRST INDIAN CONFERENCE ON LOGIC AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES

[Under the auspices of DST, ICPR, INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LTD. IIT Bombay, TIFR, FoLLI, Bolzano, Italy, and CPHS, Pune Univ.]

January 8 - 13, 2005,
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Powai, Mumbai 400 076

The “First Indian Conference in Logic and its relationship with other disciplines” was held at IIT Bombay on January 8 – 13, 2005.

On the Participants and the ambiance

The conference took place over six days of which two were devoted to tutorials and four to advanced talks. The tutorials as well as the advanced talks were given by 8 Indian logicians, mostly specialists in Indian logic, and by 18 visitors from abroad. The visitors came from the US, Britain, Netherlands, Finland, Czech Republic, Italy, Israel, Australia, Japan and other nations. They were all famous names to the extent that few conferences even in the West can boast such a galaxy of distinguished names.

Everyone was very pleased with the facilities at IIT and the marvelous organizational efforts of the local Organizing Committee and enthusiastic support of the students. The geese, the pond and the view of the Powai lake provided most people with the needed inspiration to think of deeper matters. Strong support for organizing follow up sessions was expressed. In all the Conference was memorable. Clearly there is a momentum here which we should do the best to keep up.

Brief report on the conference:

Logic evolved in many cultures and traditions. In antiquity, the development of Logic dominated the intellectual scene in India as well as Ancient Greece.

Logic grew in India as an independent discipline for over 3000 years from the tradition of Vadavidya, a discipline dealing with debate over various philosophical and moral issues. Logic was also used for reasoning in the context of medical diagnosis as in Caraka Samhita (c. 100 CE), in matters of law and justice as in Artha Sastra. Nyaya-Sutra (Akshapada Gautama, c. 100 CE) proposes perception (pratyaksha), inference (anumana), verbal testimony (sabda) and analogy (upamana) as pramanas, or the means of obtaining valid knowledge.

Although there was no ‘renaissance’ in Indian Logic, but the study of the four pramanas forms the core of the modern Indian logic (Navya-nyaya) as in Gangesa’s (c. 1325) magnum opus “Pramana-Tattva-Chintamani”. In the last few decades Indian contributions in Logic like the Nyaya-Vaisesika and the Buddhist schools have begun to be acknowledged and studied. The close linkages between Indian Logic and scientific knowledge, epistemology, ontology and linguistics are now being investigated by scholars. Some of the speakers in the present Conference discussed the key concepts in Indian Logic, viz., “Pramanya”, “Upapatti”, “Hetu” and “Hetvabhasa”, and the concept of “necessity” in Darmakirti’s theory of inference”

In modern times there has been extensive, continuous and growing interaction between Logic, Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, Cognitive Science and Psychology, Linguistics, and Economics. Overall, Logic provides all these disciplines with both a unifying foundational framework and a powerful tool for modeling and reasoning.

The Technical sessions of the Conference spanning four days covered three basic themes:

• Indian systems of Logic

• Systems of Formal Logic and Foundational issues

• Issues arising out of applications of Logic in to? the relevant disciplines like Mathematics, Computer Science, Social and Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, and Philosophy.

The major developments in current logic were covered in the tutorials in the first two days meant specifically for students and researchers. In the technical sessions papers were presented on foundational issues, logic of knowledge, probabilistic modeling, semantics of natural language, game theory, fuzzy logic, logic and Computation – abstract machines, proof and program, feedback coding and many valued logic, to mention a few themes.

Students and faculty from TIFR, IISc. Bangalore, IITs, CMI, neighboring universities, scientists, professionals and representatives from industries attended the sessions evincing keen interest and enthusiasm.

The Conference devoted itself not only to the formal aspects of logic(s), but sought to bring together scholars, researchers and students of Logic and relevant disciplines to address the issues in the interface of Logic and these relevant disciplines. It attempted to promote cross-fertilization in the disciplines - their concerns, needs and current developments.

The Conference also organized a short session for young scholars and/or those who are working for their doctoral degree, and researching currently in the areas that concern the Conference. The main motivation was to encourage those for whom this would be the very first opportunity to present their research findings in the presence of the most eminent scholars in the field.

It is believed that this is the first conference of its kind in India that attempted to bring together specialists from diverse disciplines concerned with formal Logic and its applications and addressing questions relating to the foundational issues on both sides.