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JOHN CORCORAN (born 1937, Baltimore, USA), philosopher, logician, mathematician, linguist, and historian of logic, whose work stems from the desire to understand proof and demonstrative knowledge. This has led to concern with the interrelations of objectual, operational, and propositional knowledge and with the nature of logic, the nature of mathematical logic, information-theoretic foundations of logic, conceptual structures of metalogic, relationships of logic to epistemology and ontology, and roles of proof theory and model theory in logic. His interests, hypotheses, and conclusions continue to evolve but many are foreshadowed in his earliest works, especially his 1973 paper "Gaps between logical theory and mathematical practice". See References below. Corcoran's papers have been translated into Arabic, Czech, Dutch, Greek, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. His 1989 signature essay "Argumentations and logic" has been translated into four languages. His 1999 instructional essay "Critical thinking and pedagogical license." has been translated into five languages. Several of his papers have been reprinted. His 2015 article "Existential import today", co-authored with the Iranian logician Hassan Masoud, is currently first on its journal's most-read list.
AbstrAct: This paper provides an overview of the contribution John Corcoran has made to the improvement of logical knowledge at the University of Santiago de Compostela. His contribution is put forward by analyzing those papers by him that have been translated into Spanish. Special attention is paid to what the author takes to be his major contributions to the Philosophy of Logic: his conception of proof, what he labels 'the view of logic as model' and his information-theoretic conception of the notion of logical consequence.
CORCORAN ON THE BIRTH OF LOGIC [IN ENGLISH] The last two decades have witnessed a debate concerning whether Aristotle's syllogistic is a system of deductive discourses having epistemic import exemplifying an Aristotelian theory of deductive reasoning and justifying the claim that Aristotle is the founder of logic taken as the scientific study of proof or whether, on the contrary, the syllogistic is a system of true propositions of a theory of classes justifying the claim that Aristotle is the founder of logic is taken as the scientific study of formal relations such as class inclusion. […] The epistemically-oriented interpretation permits the birth of logic as epistemic metascience to be located with Aristotle while deferring the birth of logic as ontic science to the modern period. In contrast, the ontically-oriented interpretation permits the birth of logic as ontic science to be located with Aristotle while deferring the birth of logic as epistemic metascience to the modern period. CORCORAN ON THE BIRTH OF LOGIC [IN SPANISH] CHAT https://www.academia.edu/s/a2af72ccfe/corcoran-on-the-birth-of-logic-in-spanish?source=link TEXT https://www.academia.edu/29034139/CORCORAN_ON_THE_BIRTH_OF_LOGIC_IN_SPANISH_ John Corcoran. 1992. El Nacimiento de la Lógica (The Birth of Logic), Agora 11/2, 67–78, Spanish translation by C. Martinez-Vidal and J. M. Sagüillo of an expanded and revised version of an unpublished English paper distributed to members by the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy before being presented to the Society at its 1989 Chicago Meeting. These works are listed in the following. 2015. Bibliography: John Corcoran’s Publications on Aristotle 1972–2015. Aporía · Revista Internacional de Investigaciones Filosóficas. 10 (2015) 73–118.
VARIOUS 1970-2019, 1970
This presentation includes a complete bibliography of John Corcoran’s publications relevant on Aristotle’s logic. The Sections I, II, III, and IV list respectively 23 articles, 44 abstracts, 3 books, and 11 reviews. Section I starts with two watershed articles published in 1972: the Philosophy & Phenomenological Research article—from Corcoran’s Philadelphia period that antedates his discovery of Aristotle’s natural deduction system—and the Journal of Symbolic Logic article—from his Buffalo period first reporting his original results. It ends with works published in 2015. Some items are annotated as listed or with endnotes connecting them with other work and pointing out passages that, in retrospect, are seen to be misleading and in a few places erroneous. In addition, Section V, “Discussions”, is a nearly complete secondary bibliography of works describing, interpreting, extending, improving, supporting, and criticizing Corcoran’s work: 10 items published in the 1970s, 24 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s, 60 in the 2000s, and 70 in the current decade. The secondary bibliography is also annotated as listed or with endnotes: some simply quoting from the cited item, but several answering criticisms and identifying errors. Section VI, “Alternatives”, lists recent works on Aristotle’s logic oblivious of Corcoran’s research and, more generally in some cases, even of the Łukasiewicz-initiated tradition. As is evident from Section VII, “Acknowledgements”, Corcoran’s publications benefited from consultation with other scholars, most notably George Boger, Charles Kahn, John Mulhern, Mary Mulhern, Anthony Preus, Timothy Smiley, Michael Scanlan, Roberto Torretti, and Kevin Tracy. All of Corcoran’s Greek translations were done in collaboration with two or more classicists. Corcoran never published a sentence without discussing it with his colleagues and students. FURTHER MATERIAL OF GREAT INTEREST John Corcoran and Hassan Masoud. 2014. “Existential import today: New metatheorems; historical, philosophical, and pedagogical misconceptions”. History and Philosophy of Logic. 36: 39–61. To hear the paper read aloud while you follow along with the text visit this link. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01445340.2014.952947 Ranked first on the “Most-read list” at History and Philosophy of Logic with over 6500 readers, this demanding but self-contained and widely accessible paper refutes over a century of mistakes about existential import. All terminology is not only explained but discussed. Many useful examples presented in usable form. It is suitable for classroom use. Central to our campaign is the fact that first-order logic has limited existential import: the universalized conditional implies its corresponding existentialized conjunction in some but not all cases. We prove Corcoran's Existential-Import Equivalence: In any first-order logic, for a universalized conditional to imply the corresponding existentialized conjunction it is necessary and sufficient for the existentialization of the antecedent predicate to be tautological. Click to listen to the audio or for a free preview and download. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01445340.2014.952947 WHAT MATHEMATICAL LOGIC IS Corcoran and Shapiro What Mathematical Logic Is https://www.academia.edu/12618307/Corcoran_and_Shapiro_review_What_is_Mathematical_Logic_updated_PDF https://www.academia.edu/s/184e4e0892/corcoran-shapiro-on-what-mathematical-logic-realy-is-philosophia-1978?source=link 1976. Crossley, J. N. What is Mathematical Logic? OxfordUP 1972. Philosophy of Science 43, 301–302 (Co-author: S. Shapiro). J
There is something distressing in the fact that this book, coauthored by a reputable logician, published by a reputable press and favorably reviewed by reputable reviewers, is nevertheless so marred that it cannot begin to serve its avowed purpose. The claims made by the authors, publishers and reviewers amount to an elaborate and cruel hoax. Where the reader is lead to expect clarity, insight and rationality instead he finds himself in a largely indecipherable swamp scattered with bizarre little islands of Kafkaesque puzzles and Alicein- Wonderland meaning shifts.
Corcoran, John. 2016. Logic teaching in the 21st century. Quadripartita Ratio: Revista de Argumentación y Retórica. 1 (2016) 1–34. We are much better equipped to let the facts reveal themselves to us instead of blinding ourselves to them or stubbornly trying to force them into preconceived molds. We no longer embarrass ourselves in front of our students, for example, by insisting that “Some Xs are Y” means the same as “Some X is Y”, and lamely adding “for purposes of logic” whenever there is pushback. Logic teaching in this century can exploit the new spirit of objectivity, humility, clarity, observationalism, contextualism, and pluralism. Besides the new spirit there have been quiet developments in logic and its history and philosophy that could radically improve logic teaching. This lecture expands points which apply equally well in first, second, and third courses, i.e. in “critical thinking”, “deductive logic”, and “symbolic logic”.
Corcoran and Shapiro review “What is Mathematical Logic?” updated PDF. 1976. Crossley, J. N. What is Mathematical Logic? OxfordUP 1972. Philosophy of Science 43, 301–302 (Co-author: S. Shapiro). J This book—still in print—pretends to tell the clueless neophyte what mathematical logic is—and in 82 small pages. The idea, we do not say fact, that someone knowledgeable in the subject thinks this possible is astounding. As we show in this review and in another much longer review, it is unlikely that Oxford University Press even copy-edited the book much less had it vetted by a competent logician. People who think that Oxford University Press has recently lowered its standards should read this book—or at least the reviews. 1978. Crossley on Mathematical Logic (essay review, Co-author: Stewart Shapiro), Philosophia 8, 79–94. 1988. Ensayo-Resenas: Introduciendo La Logica Matematica, Mathesis X, 133–150. Spanish translation by A. Garciadiego of revised version of “Crossley on Mathematical Logic”, Philosophia 8 (1978) 79–94. Co-author: S. Shapiro.
INTERVIEW WITH JOHN CORCORAN DRAFT 11 022418 ATHANASIOS CHRISTACOPOULOS: First of all I must say that it is an honour to have an interview with one of the leading personalities in logic, both ancient and modern. I would like to begin our conversation with your first scientific interests: those that shaped your way to research on logic—mathematical, historical, and philosophical—till the moment you said to yourself “I have something new to say”. JOHN CORCORAN: This sort of question would get different answers—all tentative—at different times. Today, I think back to the late 1960s. My first published paper “Three logical theories”, offers rationales for logical-system properties such as weak completeness, strong completeness, deductive completeness, various forms of compactness, consistency, and soundness, and the like. I wrote early drafts of what became “Three logical theories” for my graduate logic courses. One goal was to take the alienating and intimidating mumbo-jumbo hocus-pocus out of logic. I wanted to begin the process of demystifying logic. I tried to connect my students to the reality logic is about so they could get traction and be able to unmask the authoritarian charlatans hiding behind pompous jargon. I wanted to help them see logic as a dynamic, growing field answering to felt human needs. To overcome alienation students must see themselves as self-confidently creating logic for their own individually felt purposes. PLEASE SUGGEST IMPROVEMENTS.
This paper provides an overview of the contribution John Corcoran has made to the improvement of logical knowledge at the University of Santiago de Compostela. His contribution is put forward by analyzing those papers by him that have been translated into Spanish. Special attention is paid to what the author takes to be his major contributions to the Philosophy of Logic: his conception of proof, what he labels 'the view of logic as model' and his information-theoretic conception of the notion of logical consequence. Since 2003 when this paper was presented, other Spanish translations of Corcoran's work have appeared. Corcoran would like to see a new paper "JOHN CORCORAN IN SPANISH 1985 TO 2017"
2018
JOHN CORCORAN'S PUBLICATIONS ON LOGICAL FORM INCLUDING THE WORK ON LOGICAL FORMS OF PROPOSITIONS, ARGUMENTS, AND DEDUCTIONS AND THE TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS ON THE ALTERNATIVE FORMS ASSIGNED TO QUANTIFIERS IN FIRST ORDER LANGUAGES.
ATHANASIOS CHRISTACOPOULOS: First of all I must say that it is an honour to have an interview with one of the leading personalities in logic, both ancient and modern. I would like to begin our conversation with your first scientific interests that shaped your way to research on logic—mathematical, historical, and philosophical—till the moment you said to yourself " I have something new to say ". JOHN CORCORAN: The honour is mine, especially since the interviewer is such a master himself. Your wonderful question would get different answers—all tentative—at different times. Now, I think back to the late 1960s. My first published paper " Three logical theories " , offers rationales for logical-system properties such as weak completeness, strong completeness, deductive completeness, various forms of compactness, consistency, and soundness, and the like.
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