IUHPST/DLMPST

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DIVISION OF LOGIC, METHODOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Bulletin No. 17

This bulletin was published in Synthese Volume 106 No. 3 (1996) 431-443, DOI 10.1007/BF00413594.

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE;
DIVISION OF LOGIC, METHODOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

I. COUNCIL AND OFFICERS OF THE DIVISION 1991-95

Executive Committee:

  • President, JENS-ERIK FENSTAD, Department of Mathematics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1053 Blindem, 0316 Oslo 3, Norway
  • 1st Vice-President, DAG PRAWlTZ, Filosofiska Institutionen, Stockholms Universitet, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2nd Vice-President, RYSZARD WÓJCICKI, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Nowy Swia 72, 00-330 Warsaw, Poland
  • Secretary General, ELLIOTT SOBER, Department of Philosophy, 5185 Helen C White Hall, University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin 53706, U.S.A.
  • Treasurer, ANNE PRELLER, LIRMM/CNRS, 161 Rue Ada, 34392 Montpellier, France
  • Past President, L. JONATHAN COHEN, Queen's College, Oxford OX1 4AW, England

Assessors:

  • MAURICE BOFFA, Rue Dupre 49, 1090 Bruxelles, Belgium
  • ROLANDO CHUAQUI, Fac. de Mathematicas, Univ. Catolica de Chile, Casilla 6177, Santiago 22, Chile
  • P. R. H. FORREST, Department of Philosophy, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales 2351, Australia
  • MICHAEL HALLETT, Department of Philosophy, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal Quebec, Canada H3A 217
  • HIDE ISHIGURO, Keio University, 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108, Japan
  • VLADIMIR LEKTORSKY, Institute of Philosophy, Academy of Sciences of Russia, Volkhonka 14, Moscow 119842, Russia
  • G. E. MINTS, Philosophy Department, Stanford University, Stanford California 94305, U.S.A.
  • GIOVANNI SAMBIN, Dip. di Matematica Pura e Applicata, Univesita di Padova, via Belzoni 7, 35131 Padova, Italy

Former Presidents:

  • L. J. COHEN, The Queen's College, Oxford OXl 4AW, U.K.
  • D. S. SCOTT, Department of Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 15213, U.S.A.
  • S. C. KLEENE (deceased)
  • G. H. VON WRIGHT, Laivurinkatu 4, SF-00150 Helsinki, Finland
  • YEHOSHUA BAR-HILLEL (deceased)
  • STEPHAN KÖRNER, Belgrave Road, Bristol BS8 2AB, England
  • ANDRZEJ MOSTOWSKI (deceased)
  • JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Department of Philosophy, Boston University, Boston Massachusetts 02215, U.S.A.
  • PATRICK SUPPES, Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford California 94305, U.S.A.
  • JERZY ŁOŚ, Wiejska 9, Ap. 121, Warszawa 00-480, Poland

The Executive Comittee of the Division is composed of the President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer and the immediate Past-President. The Council consists of the Executive Committee plus the Assessors.

II. COMMITTEES FOR THE 10TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS (FLORENCE,ITALY, 19-26 AUGUST 1995)

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

  • Chairperson: MARIA LUISA DALLA CHIARA, Departimento di Filosofia, Universita Degli Studi di Firenze, Via Bolognese 52, 50139 Firenze, Italy
  • Congress Secretaries: R. GIUNTINI,P. MINARI

GENERAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE

J. VAN BENTHEM (Chairperson, Netherlands), R. CHUAQUI, P. HAJEK (Czech Rep), D. MUNDICI (Italy), QIu RENZONG (China), E. SOBER (U.S.A).

SECTIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS:

LOGIC

  • Proof Theory and Categorial Logic, G. E. Mints (U.S.A.)
  • Model Theory, Set Theory and Formal Systems, W. A. Hodges (U.K.)
  • Recursion Theory and Constructivism, W. Sieg (U.S.A)
  • Logic and Computer Science, C. Bohm (Italy)
  • Philosophical Logic, P. Gärdenfors (Sweden)

GENERAL PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

  • 6. Methodology, A. E. Musgrave (New Zealand)
  • 7. Probability, Induction and Decision Theory, R. C. Jeffrey (U.S.A.)
  • 8. History of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, N. Cartwright (U.K.)
  • 9. Ethics of Science and Technology, K. Schrader-Frechette (U.S.A.)

PHILOSOPHICAL AND FOUNDATIONAL PROBLEMS OF THE SCIENCES

  • 10. Logic, Mathematics and Computer Science, H. Field (U.S.A.)
  • 11. Physical Sciences, J. Earman (U.S.A.)
  • 12. Biological Sciences, M. Ruse (Canada)
  • 13. Cognitive Sciences and AI, N. Block (U.S.A.)
  • 14. Linguistics, S. Soames (U.S.A.)
  • 15. Social Sciences, P. Pettit (Australia)

CHAIRPERSONS FOR SPECIAL SYMPOSIA

  • Logic and Philosophy of Sciences— Current Interfaces, T. A. E Kuipers (Netherlands).
  • Semantics and Semiotics: J. Pelc (Poland).
  • Logic and Philosophy of Science in the Far East, Qiu Renzong (China).
  • Logic in Central and Eastern Europe, S. Artemov (Russia), P. Hajek (Czech Rep.)

AFFILIATED MEETINGS

  • Proof Theory for Natural Languages
    Meeting organized by FOLLI (European Foundation for Logic, Language and Information).
  • Meeting on Model Theory
    Jointly organized by AILA (Italian Association for Logic and its Applications) and KGS (Kurt Godel Society, Vienna).
  • Cues for a Philosophy of Medicine Sponsored by the Carlo Marchi Foundation (Florence), organized by the Florence Center for the History and Philosophy of Science.
  • Science and Music Sponsored by the Carlo Marchi Foundation (Florence), organized by the Florence Center for the history and Philosophy of Science.
  • Quantum Measurements, Complex Systems and Physical Reality
    Panel discussion, sponsored and organized by the Center for Epistemology and History of Science "E Enriques" (Bologna, Cesena).

III. MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY FLORENCE, ITALY, AUGUST 23, 1995

1. Delegates

In accordance with its mandate from the Executive Committee, the Credentials Committee (E. Sober and A. Preller) verified the credentials of 26 delegates from ordinary members. No delegates representing international member organizations attended. The ordinary members who were represented were as follows (the membership category of each is indicated in parentheses):

  • Australia (B),
  • Austria (A),
  • Belgium (A),
  • Canada (C),
  • Chile (A),
  • China, CAST (C),
  • China, Taipei (B),
  • Czech Republic (A),
  • Finland (B),
  • France (D),
  • Germany (D),
  • Hungary (A),
  • Ireland (A),
  • Italy (D),
  • Japan (D),
  • Norway (A),
  • Poland (B),
  • Romania (A),
  • Russia (D),
  • Slovenia (A),
  • Spain (B),
  • Sweden (C),
  • Switzerland (A),
  • UK (D),
  • USA (E),
  • Yugoslavia (A).

Ordinary Members not Present:

Bulgaria (A), Denmark (B), India (A), Israel (A), Korea (A), Monaco (A), Netherlands (B), Peru (A), Venezuela (A).

International Member Present:

Association for Symbolic Logic

International Member Not Present:

International Academy of Philosophy of Science

2. Minutes of the Previous General Assembly

The President stated that the minutes of the previous General Assembly (held in Uppsala, Sweden 1991) were published in Synthese 91, 153-65, (1992). They were approved without change.

3. New Members

On the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the General Assembly accepted the Baltic Association for History and Philosophy of Science, Brazil, Georgia, Iran, and Slovenia as new members.

4. Reclassification and Termination of Members

On the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the General Assembly reclassified the United Kingdom from category D to category C.

On the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the General Assembly terminated the memberships of Bulgaria, Korea, and Venezuela for nonpayment of dues. The President expressed the hope that these countries will return soon to membership in the Division.

5. President's Report

I am happy to report that the Division has had another successful four year period of activity. The details will be given you by the Secretary and the Treasurer in their separate reports. Let me take this opportunity to thank those Officers for their able and dedicated work. It has been a great pleasure for me to work with them over the last four years.

In my opening remarks at the Congress, I recalled a few facts from our history, in particular, how the IUHPS/DLMPS is part of the larger family of unions belonging to ICSU, i.e., the International Council of Scientific Unions. Through the long and troubled period after the war, ICSU was the main safeguard of the free pursuit of science, making possible a wide and successful international collaboration, which in our case the past series of congresses bear witness to.

Today the situation has changed. New words have appeared -account-ability and responsibility — in addition to freedom of pursuit. The system is in many places in the world under great stress, and more than ever do we need strong and independent international organizations. I am happy to see many new nations admitted to the DLMPS at this General Assembly and I hope that the excellent work done by the General Program Committee and the Local Organizing Committee in bringing about the 10th Congress will help to strengthen our new members in their scientific work.

The scientific world is never static and we have seen new international professions being formed, in particular, at the interface of logic, linguistics, computer science and the cognitive sciences. It is an urgent challenge to the new Executive Committee to engage these communities in the work of the DLMPS.

At the opening session of the Congress, I recalled the great work of Alfred Tarski in the creation of the IUHPS. Let me conclude this report by honoring the memory of our first President, S. C. Kleene, who has passed away since the last General Assembly. His dedication and hard work helped transform the formal creation of a union into a strong instrument of work and world wide collaboration.

6. Secretary General's Report

Scholarly Activities of the Division

The main activities of the Division have been the organization and sponsorship of scholarly meetings and the publication of their proceedings.

In 1991, the Ninth International Congress was held in Uppsala, Sweden. The Proceedings of the Congress were published in 1994 by Elsevier Science Publishers under the title Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science/X; this was Volume 134 of the series Studies in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics (D. Prawitz, B. Skyrms, and D. Westerståhl, eds.).

In the period 1991-95, the Division sponsored fourteen other international conferences, symposia, and summer schools. A list of the meetings is given in Appendix A. The Division joined with its sister division, the Division of History of Science, to sponsor a joint conference on history and philosophy of science in August, 1994 in Warsaw, Poland on the theme "Theories and Models in Scientific Processes." The Division has cont'mued to assist the European meeting of the Association of Symbolic Logic.

Cooperation with Other Organizations

The Secretary of IUHPS/DLMPS and the Secretary of IUHPS/DHS (who at present is Professor Robert Halleux, Centre d'Histoire des Science et des Techniques, Université de Liege, Belgium) coordinate applications for funds from ICSU, our parent organization, and help arrange joint conferences that are intended to bring together scholars from history and philosophy of science. The Union was represented at annual general assemblies of ICSU by Jens-Erik Fenstad, President of IUHPS/DLMPS, and by Elliott Sober, Secretary General of IUHPS/DLMPS.

Meetings of the Executive Committee

The Executive Committee met in 1991 at the Uppsala Congress, in 1992 in Montpellier, France, and in 1993 in Oslo, Norway. To economize, no meeting was held in 1994. Much of the business of the Committee has been conducted by correspondence.

Annual Reports

The Secretary prepares an annual report of activities of the Division that is sent to ICSU and also to members and prospective members of the Division.

Plans for 1996

IUHPS/DLMPS will support four meetings in 1996: a Joint Congress of DHS/DLMPS on the subject "Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Islam and in the West" (Liege, Belgium), the Sixth Asian Logic Conference (Beijing, China), a conference on "Recent Trends in the Study of Science: Naturalized Epistemology and the Sociology of Knowledge" (University of Miskolc, Hungary), and a conference on "Logical Foundations of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics—Kurt Godel's Legacy" (Brno, Czech Republic).

7. Treasurer's Report

General Trend

The Division is slowly getting poorer. In December 1992, the assets of the division were US$50,838, in December 1994, they were US$79,337. The increase, slightly over US$28,000, covers barely the subsidy of US$30,000 committed to the Xth International Congress of the Division which is taking place now.

Income Diminishing

Over the three year period, the assets will have been maintained, but the Income of the Division has decreased in absolute value. This is due to stable membership fees (no rise since 1987), devaluation of the dollar and no contribution from ICSU. Indeed, ICSU will only fund scientific meetings, on special application to be submitted by the Secretary General of our Division.

Special Effort for Congress

To make up for the diminished income and an increase of cost, mostly due to the low value of the dollar, spending had to be cut to the bare minimum. The Executive Committee has met only two times in three years, the administrative expenses are less than 5% of the income. The main financial effort has been directed towards this congress which has received the highest financial contribution ever from the Division, exceeding by far the special funds from ICSU.

Call for Applications

As a treasurer, I want to maintain the assets and to augment funding of scientific activities. As the routine costs cannot be lowered any more, there is only one way to achieve this: increase the income. Therefore the Executive Committee proposes to increase the basic rate from US$125 per year to US$150 per year. If endorsed by the General Assembly, this increase will be effective from 1997 on. There are a few other possibilities to increase our income:

First, I will try to obtain from each country that it pays its subscription fee free of bank charges and at the beginning of the financial year.

Second, we need more applications for financial support to our Division. This seems paradoxical, but our income from ICSU can vary from 0 to 6000 and even occasionally 10000. This depends only on the sum of applications our Secretary General has been submitting. Therefore, please apply for funds to our Secretary, and apply in timex You have to do this by November of the year X for a meeting which is to take place in X + 2.

Third, recruit new members! This has been of course an aim of this Executive Committee, but it is also a task for every member.

8. Unit of Subscription

On the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the General Assembly increased the unit of subscription from $125 to $150, beginning in 1997. The vote was 63 yes, 4 no, and 3 abstaining.

A representative from Canada made the following points: (a) Canada opposes increases in annual fees that exceed the inflation rate; (b) Canada suggests that IUHPS/DLMPS conduct a priority setting exercise; (c) Canada has promptly paid its dues in the last five years; (d) Canada supports a more open and democratic system of governing the IUHPS/DLMPS.

The representative of Canada noted that the increase in the unit of subscription approved by the General Assembly falls within the limits that Canada recommends. The representative of France indicated that France cannot agree to the increase because he received no instructions to do so from the French Academy.

9. Budgetary Matters

On the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the General Assembly authorized the Executive Committee to make budgetary determinations for the period 1995-1999.

10. Election of the Executive Committee and Council

On the recommendation of the Nominations Committee (J. E. Fenstad, L. J. Cohen, H. Ishiguru, and R. Chuaqui), the General Assembly unanimously elected the following new and continuing officers:

  • President — Wesley Salmon (USA);
  • First Vice-President — Petr Hajek (Czech Republic);
  • Second Vice-President — Maria Dalla Chiara (Italy);
  • Secretary General — Elliott Sober (USA);
  • Treasurer — Anne Preller (France);
  • Past President — J. E. Fenstad (Norway).

Assessors:

John Crossley (Australia), Peter Gärdenfors (Sweden), Kazuyuki Nomoto (Japan), Carlos Di Prisco (Venezuela), Michael Redhead (UK), Qiu Renzong (China-Beijing), Boris Yudin (Russia).

11. New Domicile for IUHPS/DLMPS

On the recommendation of the Executive Committee, the General Assembly voted to change Article 23 of our statutes to list Montpellier, France (not Brussels, Belgium) as our official domicile.

12. Ethics Committee

L. J. Cohen reported that IUHPS/DLMPS helped ICSU develop its ability to address ethical issues raised by science and technology by creating, at the 1991 Uppsala Congress, a Committee on Ethics and Science. This was chaired by K. Shrader-Frechette (USA); its other members were B. Hansson (Sweden), Ren-Zong Qiu (China- Beijing), and W. Shea (Canada). ICSU provided $10,000 in 1994 to help DLMPS convene a conference on these issues in London, UK as a supplement to the annual BSPS meeting. ICSU will address these matters at its General Assembly in Washington, DC in 1996 and will create its own committee on the rights and duties of scientists at that time.

The President then recommended that the General Assembly disband the Committee on Ethics and Science and thank the committee for its work. Passed unanimously.

13. Location of the 11th Congress (1999)

The President reported that there exists a preliminary invitation from Cracow, Poland to host the 1999 Congress. Jan Woleński (Poland) expressed the hope that Cracow will be able to host the Congress, a sentiment that J. Pelc (Poland) also affirmed.

APPENDIX A: CONFERENCES SPONSORED BY IUHPS/DLMPS, 1991-1995

During 1991, two conferences were assisted by funds from the IUHPS/ DLMPS: the Ninth International Congress of IUHPS/DLMPS in Uppsala, Sweden and a conference on causation in science in London, UK organized by the British Society for the Philosophy of Science.

During 1992, four conferences were assisted by funds from the IUHPS/ DLMPS: a meeting of the Association for Symbolic Logic in Budapest, Hungary; a conference on the History of the Foundations of Mathematics in Boston, USA; a Logic Symposium in Bahia Blanca, Argentina; a conference on Scientific Realism in Beijing, China.

During 1993, three conferences were assisted by funds from the IUHPS/ DLMPS. The Kurt Gödel Society held a colloquium on computational logic and proof theory in Brno, Czech Republic. A conference on philosophical issues in quantum mechanics was held at Princeton University, USA. The International Academy of Philosophy of Sciences held a conference on the present status of the philosophy of mathematics in Budapest, Hungary.

During 1994, five conferences were sponsored by the IUHPS/DLMPS: the European Association for Symbolic Logic met in Clermont-Ferrand, France, July 21-30, 1994; a joint DLMPS/DHS meeting on Theories and Models in Scientific Processes in Warsaw, Poland, August 26-29, 1994; a symposium on Ethics and Science was held in conjunction with the British Association for the Philosophy of Science annual meeting in London, UK, September 23-25, 1994; a Conference on the Vienna Circle, Beijing, China, October 21-24, 1994; a Philosophy of Science Association symposium on Perspectives on the Social Relations of History and Philosophy of Science, New Orleans, USA, October 1994.

During 1995, the Tenth International Congress of IUHPS/DLMPS was held in Florence, Italy.

[Financial report to be added]