Title:
The Frog and Mouse Battle
Logic, politics and justice
Abstract:
The 1920s saw the rise of modern logic: Hilbert’s formalist programme, Gödel’s theorems, and Brouwer’s intuitionism offered competing visions for the foundations of mathematics. At the centre was a clash between Hilbert and Brouwer over the law of excluded middle—a dispute that turned political in the wake of WWI. It ended with Hilbert expelling Brouwer from the Mathematische Annalen, prompting high-profile resignations, including Einstein’s. While the episode had political dimensions, it also reveals a form of epistemic injustice that is logical in nature. Drawing on my recent work in logic, I’ll offer a fresh analysis of the logical injustice at the heart of the coup that ultimately ended Brouwer’s career.
Bio:
Dr. Patrick Girard is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland. Specialising in philosophical logic and non-classical meta-theory, he brings a distinctive perspective to traditional logical frameworks. He holds a PhD from Stanford University and has a sustained commitment to exploring and challenging the boundaries of logic. In his recent book, Logic in the Wild, he reclaims logic from the confines of mathematical formalities and restores its relevance to ordinary reasoning and daily experience. His recent work takes seriously the challenges posed by critical theory and seeks to rehabilitate logical praxis to make it more equitable and epistemically just.
