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

II. COMMITTEES FOR THE 14TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS
(NANCY, FRANCE, 19-26 JULY 2011)

Advisory Board

Program special topic:

Program structure:

Local committees:

Organizing Committee

• Local Organizing Committee Chair: Gerhard HEINZMANN
• Vice-Chair: Claude DEBRU
• Local Staff Chair: Pierre-Édouard BOUR
• Local Staff Vice-Chair: Clémentine LE MONNIER
• In charge of Logistics: Milica PEJANOVIĆ
• Communications Officer: Marie L'ÉTANG
• Assistant Communications Officer: Marc HENRY
• Finance Manager: Bernadette CLASQUIN
• Funds Manager: Cindy NEVÈS
• Assistant Funds Manager: Sacha BILLIER
• Secretary: Lucie FLORENTIN
• Translations: Katarzyna GAN-KRZYWOSZYŃSKA
• Editorial Assistant (Materials of the Congress): Sandrine AVRIL
• Local Organizing Committee Members: Anny BEGARD; Frédérique BEY; Lydie MARIANI; Geneviève SCHWARTZ
• Interns: Olivia BURTIN; Amandine DAUTREY; Charlotte MADER
• Event organizers: Sophie Gaulier & Anthony Humbertclaude (SG Organisation, Nancy)

Local Scientific Committee
(in charge of general public events)

Joint Commission Chair
(organizing a Symposium on behalf of both DLMPS and DHST):

• Imre HRONSZKY (Budapest, Hungary)

III. UNCONFIRMED MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF IUHPS/DLMPS, JULY 22, 2011, GRAND SALON DE L'HOTEL DE VILLE (CITY HALL), NANCY, FRANCE

Ordinary Members present:

• Australia (C): Erik Nyberg
• Austria (A): Christian Feldbacher
• Canada (C): Jean-Pierre Marquis, Elaine Landry, Jeff Kochan
• Czech Republic (A): Pavel Materna
• Denmark (B): Jessica Carter
• Estonia (A): Rein Vihalemm
• Finland (B): Ilkka Niiniluoto, Gabriel Sandu
• France (D): Claude Debru, Gerhard Heinzmann, Jean Mosconi, Hourya Sinaceur
• Germany (D): Peter Schroeder-Heister, Benedikt Löwe
• Hungary (A): László Ropolyi
• Japan (D): Takashi Iida, Tetsuji Iseda, Yasuo Nakayama, Tomoyuki Yamada
• Netherlands (B): Benedikt Löwe
• Poland (B): Jan WoleÅ„ski
• Romania (A): Angela Botez
• South Africa (A): Don Ross
• Spain (B): Inmaculada Perdomo
• Sweden (C): Bengt Hansson, Sven-Ove Hansson, Dag Westerståhl
• Switzerland (A): Thomas Studer
• Taiwan (B): Yuann Jeu-Jenq, Caleb Liang
• United Kingdom (D): Roy Dyckhoff, John Dupré, Roman Frigg, Paulo Oliva
• United States (E): Heather Douglas, Kevin Elliott, Christopher Hitchcock

Ordinary Members absent: Belgium (A), P. R. China (C), Eire (A), India (A), Iran (A), Israel (A), Monaco (A), Norway (A), Serbia (A)

International Members present:

• Institut Wiener Kreis (A): Friedrich Stadler
• Polish Association for Logic and Philosophy of Science (0): Marcin MiÅ‚kowski

International Members absent: Association for Symbolic Logic (C), Charles Peirce Society (0), FoLLI (A)

Others: According to tradition, the GA was open to all Congress Participants. In particular, the incoming Ordinary Member South Korea was represented by In-Rae Cho, and Italy by Maria Carla Galavotti, who also represented EPSA as incoming International Member; the Société de Philosophie des Sciences was represented by Stéphanie Ruphy. Also, Michael Matthews (Australia) represented the new Teaching Commission, Sjoerd D. Zwart (Netherlands) the new Commission on the Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences, and Wilfrid Hodges (UK) the new Commission on Arabic Logic.

1. Opening and formalities

After verification of the members present, President Wilfrid Hodges opened the General Assembly at 19:15. The Agenda was approved, and two tellers, David Pearce and In-Rae Cho, were appointed.

2. Minutes from the 13th General Assembly in Beijing 2007

The draft minutes were approved unanimously.

3. President's report

A. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND ASSESSORS

The new Executive Committee took office on 1 January 2008 with six members. But the number of members dropped effectively to four. Our first loss was when in 2009 our Past President, Adolf Grünbaum, asked to be dropped from the Executive Committee mailing list because of failing health. We sorely missed his experience and his generous optimism.

The second loss was our Secretary General, Peter Clark, who was compelled to stand down through a family tragedy. In effect the responsibilities of Secretary General were taken over by other members of the EC, and this explains the lack of a Secretary's Report. But we would hardly have survived without the generous help of Dag Westerståhl, the previous Secretary General, who agreed to stand in as Acting Secretary General until this meeting, in spite of his many other commitments.

The EC held its meetings by e-mail. This saved some money, and it allowed us to respond reasonably quickly when issues came up, and also to discuss some things at leisure.

Members of the EC and Assessors carried out various duties and contributed to a number of policy discussions - the Nominating Committee is one example among many. I record my personal warm thanks for all this help and support.

B. WEBSITE

The DLMPS website announced by Dag Westerståhl at the 2007 General Assembly has been maintained and updated, and can now be found at www.dlmpst.org. The site is expected to play a key role in supporting the planned divisional Commissions.

One of the stated objectives of DLMPS is "to collect documents useful for the development of logic, methodology and philosophy of science", and it would be odd if we didn't collect our own General Assembly minutes. In fact these (from the 1962 Assembly onwards) have been published in the journal Synthese. We intend to continue publishing them there, but now they are all publicly available on our website too. We thank the journal Synthese for agreeing to this.

Another item on the website is the full membership list, including postal (not e-mail) addresses and some historical information. The list is up to date and includes verified contacts for all National Committees - with the exception of Monaco which seems to have no National Committee. We thank the many people who helped us to bring the list up to date; in some cases this involved volunteering to revive a National Committee.

C. IUHPS, DHST AND THE JOINT COMMISSION

DLMPS and its sister division DHST (formerly DHS) form the two divisions of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, IUHPS. Since 1999 the relations between the two Divisions have nominally been regulated by a Joint Agreement, which describes in particular (1) how responsibility for IUHPS is allocated between the two Divisions, and (2) the arrangements governing the Joint Commission, which arranges meetings of interest to both Divisions. An update of this Joint Agreement was agreed at the 2007 General Assembly.

In the event, neither of the two Executives was happy with this document, for various reasons. In April 2009 we approached the DHST Executive with a view to getting the facts about the Joint Commission straight. They responded by inviting representatives of our EC to have a lunch meeting with them during the 2009 Congress of DHST in Budapest. This very useful meeting led to several exchanges aimed at improving the Joint Agreement - until DLMPS decided to abandon the attempt and do what DHST does already, namely to count the Joint Commission as one of their Commissions, regulated by their Statutes. At the same time we agreed with DHST a plan to convert the DHST Teaching Commission into a Commission of both Divisions. The move to set up Commissions, including these two and two others internal to DLMPS, appears later on today's agenda and is certainly one of the major changes in the organisation of DLMPS since it was first set up in 1956. Since DHST already has Commissions, we were happy to be able to take advice from DHST on how to operate these.

So the arrangements for running IUHPS are no longer in any document agreed between the two Divisions. In practice this was no problem while the two Divisions kept in touch. But for the future I would recommend to my successor to make some arrangement with DLMPS about setting up an IUHPS web page on one or both of the Division websites. It should include the IUHPS Statutes (if this document can be found!), and might also include a shorter version of the Joint Agreement material about the Divisions' responsibility for IUHPS.

For 2010-2011 the responsibility for finding a Joint Commission Chair rested with DLMPS. We are immensely grateful to Imre Hronszky for taking up this post at short notice and in face of serious difficulties; the Joint Commission Symposium which he organised at this Congress is a most valuable part of the programme. We also thank DHST for the support and encouragement that they have given to Imre.

During 2010-2011 we have the presidency of IUHPS and hence responsibility for dealings with ICSU. We have handled a number of requests that came from or through ICSU, and the President attended an ICSU meeting of Scientific Unions in Paris in April 2010. Also at the start of 2010 DHST appointed an Assistant Secretary General, Karine Chemla, with the new task of handling consultations that came from ICSU. This seems a good idea which DLMPS might follow, provided that the membership list is kept up to date so that National Committees can be consulted by e-mail. We have invited Karine to attend a meeting of DLMPS Council at Nancy as a representative of the DHST Executive.

D. THE NANCY CONGRESS

One major responsibility of the DLMPS is to appoint a Programme Chair and a General Programme Committee for the International Congress. We are very grateful to the members of the General Programme Committee, and to the Programme Chair Peter Schroeder-Heister in particular, for agreeing to take on these important jobs. We also noted two problems that have become almost traditional for DLMPS programme committees and are probably not independent. (1) The wide spread of interests in DLMPS, ranging from axiomatic set theory to philosophy of medicine, makes it hard to produce a coherent programme. (2) Among the large number of people involved in drawing up the programme, some people, particularly in what might be called the more fringe areas, do not take their job seriously, which can lead to less than ideal choices of speaker. We responded to problem (1) by borrowing an idea from DHST, that each Congress should have a published theme. The theme that we proposed for the Nancy Congress was 'Logic and Science facing the New Technologies'. We responded to problem (2) by encouraging the Programme Chair to work with a slimmer set of programme advisers. Our successors will need to judge whether these two moves were helpful. Another traditional problem with DLMPS programmes is that some groups, either subject or national groups, feel under-represented in the programme. We did nothing to counter this problem, regarding it as at least partly a matter of random variations. But we were happy to know that the Programme Committee made considerable efforts to have a good geographical coverage within a sound scientific programme.

Discussion:

Roy Dyckhoff, expressed concerns, on behalf of the British National Committee for LMPS, about the role DLMPS is able to play in the promotion of logic. He noted the declining number of logicians at LMPS congresses: while the invited talks in mathematical logic are still many and of top quality, the number of contributed papers, and thus the number of mathematical logicians present at the congresses, has become very small. Clearly, other regular international meetings have become more important to mathematical logicians than LMPS, and he inquired as to the EC's view on this situation. He also suggested that logic meetings supported by DLMPS in between the 4 yearly congresses would be essential to maintaining the status of mathematical logic within the division.

Jan Woleński (Poland) addressed the issue of the distribution of invited speakers; in his view too few speakers from Eastern Europe were invited to the Nancy Congress. For this reason he suggested that more attention should be paid to the geographical distribution of members of the committees responsible for the programme.

The President thanked Dyckhoff and Woleński for bringing up these issues, which were noted, and will be passed on to the next EC.

4. Treasurer's report

In the absence of the Treasurer (Ralf Schindler), Dag Westerståhl presented the Treasurer's report. The report consists of three tables, summarizing the DLMPS total assets from 1999 to 2010, the member fees between 2007 and 2010, and the expenses during those four years.

Discussion:

Michael Matthews (Australia) noted that the sister Division DHST actually earns a small income from their congresses, via a percentage of the congress fee. In contrast, for DLMPS the congress is the main expense, and he wondered if DLMPS might consider a system similar to that of DHST, thus freeing funds for other activities. Heather Douglas (US) replied that since the DLMPS finances are in order as they are, no change is necessary. The President noted these suggestions, which will be passed on to the next EC.

5. Membership issues

Five applications for membership had come in:

• Korea, ordinary membership, Category B.
• Société de Philosophie des Sciences (www.sps-philoscience.org), international membership, Category B.
• Estonia, ordinary membership, Category A. (This in effect is a renaming of the previous Baltic States international membership, and making it an ordinary membership.)
• Italy, ordinary membership, Category A.
• European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA; www.epsa.ac.at), international membership, Category A.

Since two of the applications (Italy and EPSA) had come in after the Agenda was sent out, the GA voted on the applications, with the alternatives YES (to all applications) and NO. The votes were 49 in favor and 0 against. This was well above half of the total number of votes (ordinary and international members, present and non-present), so the President could welcome all five new members into DLMPS.

6. Membership in CIPHS (Conseil International de la Philosophie et des Sciences Humaines)

The EC had, at the request of the GA in Beijing 2007, had discussions with CIPSH 'in a positive spirit' and applied for membership. The EC still has to hear from CIPSH about the outcome.

7. Revision of the DLMPS Statutes to allow Commissions, both internal and inter-divisional

The following changes to the present Statutes (available at the DLMPS web site) had been approved by the Council and were proposed to the GA:

The changes were approved unanimously.

8. New Commissions

The EC proposed the establishment of four Commissions:

1. The Joint Commission automatically becomes an inter-divisional Commission under the revised Statutes.
2. The present Teaching Commission of DHST becomes an inter-divisional Commission with President Michael Matthews (Australia) and Secretary Costas Skordoulis (Greece).
3. A Commission on Arabic Logic, with Chair Tony Street (UK) and Secretary Wilfrid Hodges (UK).
4. A Commission on the Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences, with President/Chair Sjoerd D. Zwart (Netherlands).

Michael Matthews (Australia) presented the Teaching Commission. The website of the Teaching Commission is at http://www.dhst-tc.org. Claude Debru (France) expressed 'strong enthusiastic support' of this proposal. The Commission on Arabic Logic was presented by Wilfrid Hodges (UK). An inaugural meeting of the Commission is scheduled for November 2011. Sjoerd D. Zwart (Netherlands) presented the Commission on the Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences.

All four proposals were approved unanimously.

9. Adding "Technology" to DLMPS

The following letter was addressed to the Presidents of IUHPS/DLMPS and IUHPS/DHST on 27 June 2008, by Claude Debru on behalf of the French National Committee of History and Philosophy of Science:

In response to this, the EC had prepared a position paper on the extent to which technology is already part of the DLMPS field, and the changes that adding "Technology" would require. The paper resulted in two recommendations by the EC:

(a) We RECOMMEND that the General Assembly should agree in principle that 'philosophy of science' in the stated scope of the Division should be expanded to 'philosophy of science and technology', and should ask the Executive Committee to bring to the 2015 General Assembly proposals for changes in the Statutes and the name of the Division to give effect to this expansion.

(b) We RECOMMEND that the General Assembly should ask the Executive Committee to consult with the officers of DHST with a view to changing the name of the Union so as to include technology.

The President presented the recommendations, noting that the Joint Commission Symposium earlier the same day had expressed its very strong support. Jan Woleński (Poland) argued that the distinction between science and technology is unclear, e.g. medicine is neither science nor technology, so a name change serves no purpose. The first recommendation was approved with a show of hands, showing (roughly) 32 for and 3 against. The second recommendation was approved unanimously.

10. Election of the next DLMPS Council (Executive Committee and Assessors)

The Nominations Committee (Wilfrid Hodges (chair), Joëlle Proust, Friedrich Stadler, Soshichi Uchii), proposed the following candidates:

Executive Committee 2012 - 2015.

• President: Elliott Sober (USA)
• First Vice-President: Maria Carla Galavotti (Italy)
• Second Vice-President: Cliff Hooker (Australia)
• Secretary General: Peter Schroeder-Heister (Germany)
• Treasurer: Ralf Schindler (Germany)
• Past President: Wilfrid Hodges (UK)

In addition to these officers, the President proposed that an Assistant Secretary-General should be appointed for the same period, to somewhat ease the workload of the Secretary-General. Benedikt Löwe (Netherlands) had agreed to undertake this task, if elected. The proposal for the new Executive Committee, and for Benedikt Löwe as Assistant Secretary-General, was then approved unanimously.

The Nominations Committee's proposal for the Assessors was the following:

Assessors 2012 - 2015.

• Dennis Dieks (Netherlands)
• Adam Grobler (Poland)
• Pablo Lorenzano (Argentina)
• Karen Neander (USA)
• Nancy Nersessian (USA)
• Ilkka Niiniluoto (Finland)
• Mariko Yasugi (Japan)

Claude Debru (France) suggested that Gerhard Heinzmann (France), in view of his excellent work in organizing the Nancy Congress, and his experience with DLMPS matters, should be added as an Assessor. Gerhard Heinzmann accepted this nomination, and it was unanimously decided to add his name to the list of proposed Assessors. The thus extended list of Assessors was then approved unanimously.

11. Host of the next LMPS Congress (2015)

The EC had received a proposal from the University of Helsinki to host the 2015 Congress of LMPS. The proposal was presented by Ilkka Niiniluoto and Gabriel Sandu with a slide show, emphasizing the great traditions and current excellence of research at the University of Helsinki in logic, philosophy, and philosophy of science, including the social sciences. The congress would be held in the main university building in the centre of Helsinki, with walking distance to hotels. Participants asked various questions about the venue, concerning things like the weather, the light nights, the most suitable dates, and the need to avoid collisions and to coordinate with other important meetings. In response to a question about costs of living, Niiniluoto said that Finland is not cheap, slightly above EU average, but that reductions of hotel costs would be available to participants. Friedrich Stadler (Assessor) expressed strong support for the Helsinki proposal. The President expressed the EC's equally strong support, and suggested that next EC would determine the dates for the congress together with the organizers. The offer by the University of Helsinki to host the next congress was then unanimously accepted.

12. Any other business

Dag Westerståhl (Sweden) reminded the GA that the current EC for most of their period had had four members instead of six, and especially that Wilfrid Hodges for a long time in practice had functioned both as President and Secretary-General. In spite of this, the EC has done excellent and innovative work, as seen from the items discussed at this GA. He asked the participants at the GA to join him in thanking Wilfrid Hodges and the outgoing EC for their dedicated and successful work.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 21:15.

Respectfully submitted,
Dag Westerståhl
Acting Secretary-General IUHPS/DLMPS