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[Bulletin No. 0]

This bulletin was published in Synthese Volume 32 No. 1-2 (1975) 249-265, DOI 10.1007/BF00485118.

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

I. COUNCIL AND OFFICERS OF THE DIVISION FOR THE PERIOD 1971-1975

Executive Committee:

Assessors:

Adolf Grünbaum, Mary Hesse, M.V. Popovich, Dana Scott, Wolfgang Stegmüller, Hiromiki Takeda.

Alternate Assessors:

Jonathan L. Cohen, Helena Rasiowa.

Former Presidents:

The Executive Committee of the division is composed of the President, 1st Vice-President, 2nd Vice-president, Secretary and Treasurer. The Council consists of the Executive Committee plus the Assessors.

II. COMMITTEES FOR THE VTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS
(London, Ontario, 1975)

Local Organizing Committee

Programme Committee

Chairmen of Sectional Committees

III. MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY (London, Ontario, August 28, 1975)

The meeting was called to order by the President, Professor Jaakko Hintikka, at 3:45 PM in the Alumni Hall auditorium of the University of Western Ontario.

The President read the following two memorial minutes:

Andrzej Mostowski

Just when the fifth International Congress of LMPS was about to begin, the saddest news that its participants could have imagined suddenly reached them. Professor Andrzej Mostowski, President of the DLMPS/ IUHPS had unexpectedly passed away on 22 August, 1975, that is to say, only five days before the beginning of our Congress. This is not only a terrible loss to our organization and to our whole profession, but to many of us also a profound personal loss.

It is impossible for me to present here anything like an account of Andrzej Mostowski's life and achievements that would meet his own high standards of accuracy and clarity. Let me therefore just remind you of some of the main facts of his life and career. In presenting them, I am greatly indebted to the information and formulations Professor Helena Rasiowa has kindly supplied me with.

Andrzej Mostowski was born almost 62 years ago. For anyone who survived the grim years of the Second World War in Warsaw, it is perhaps an ironical fate of having to pass on while on a lecture tour in our peaceful host country in Vancouver, Canada.

Mostowski was both a product of the famous Polish school of logic and foundational studies and one of its greatest spirits. All through his scientific career he was connected with the University of Warsaw where he studied and where he later became professor. During the war he taught at the famous Underground University of Warsaw. Among the teachers who exerted formative influence on him were the famous Warsaw mathematicians Sierpiński, Kuratowski, and Tarski. Just after the war Mostowski succeeded Leśniewski in the chain of Philosophy of Mathematics at the University of Warsaw. However, Mostowski worked also at the Mathematical Institute of the Polish Academy of Science where he directed the division of the foundations of mathematics. He was a member of the Academy, which is the highest honor bestow a scientist can receive in Poland.

Mostowski's interest in logic were distinguished by their many-sidedness which borders on exhaustiveness. This universality of his logical interests is nicely reflected by his perhaps too little known survey Thirty Years of Foundational Studies. In connection with it, he once said to me: in twenty or maybe ten years this kind of book will be impossible. No one will be able to master all the aspects of the subject any longer so as view it in its totality. I did not say it to him but couldn't help thinking: Very few logicians can do it now, and no one better than Mostowski.

This versatility is reflected by the many books Mostowski wrote. Among them were highly specialized ones, for instance, his book on Projective Sets. Others were excellent textbooks. Two of them were crucial for the formation of a whole generation of younger Polish logicians after the war. One of them is well known to many students of mathematics and philosophy around the world under the title Sentences Undecidable in the Formalized Arithmetic: An Exposition of the theory of K. Gödel. The second was a graduate textbook on mathematical logic, published only in Poland. In addition to logic and set theory he wrote a few years after the war (together Marceli Starle) textbooks in modern algebra which were and are the bases of the education of algebraists in Poland. The treatise on Set Theory which Mostowski wrote jointly with K. Kuratowski has appeared in both Polish and English editions.

Among Mostowski's main mathematical interest set theory was a dominant one. His thinking on model theory was in set-theoretical terms.

Because of this tremendous range of Mostowski's logical interests and results his lifework is impossible to summarize briefly. Personally, what always impressed me strongly in Mostowski's work was the clarity of his thinking and his very firm grasp of the general implications of what he was doing. He had an exceptionally good sense of what a logical or mathematical theory really is like, it seems to me.

Mostowski was literally in thick of international cooperation in the fields he represented, both on the organizational level and on the informal level of exchanging still unpublished results and ideas. When he died, he was within a week of completing his tenure as the President of DLMPS/IUHPS. As a feUow officer, I can bear witness to the unselfish dedication and industry with which he fulfilled all his Presidential duties. His nice sense of style and his feeling for just the right word and phrase served him well in chairing the meetings I attended with him. On the informal level, Mostowski knew through his many contacts all over the world what logicians were proving much before the results were published, and he shared this information with his pupils and colleagues in many countries. Through these connections his students were included in the mainstream of the scientific efforts in the field of logic.

Earlier, Mostowski had served for three years as the Vice-President of our Division. His services to our profession include also importantly his activities as an editor of the North-Holland Series Studies in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics and later on as an editor of the Annals of Mathematical Logic. He was editorially connected also with a large number of other publications, including Fundamenta Mathematicae, Studia Logica, Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Science, and Monografia Matematyczie.

Andrzej Mostowski will be remembered not only as a brilliant logician but also as a magnificent friend and a finely cultivated man. As a person, he exhibited a rare combination of modesty and dignity. He is survived by Mrs. Mostowski, who was with him in Vancouver, two sons and a daughter.

Grigore C. Moisil

Our organization, the DLMPS/IUHPS, has been singularly unfortunate in losing two of its senior officers in the four-year period 1971-75. In addition to the demise of Professor Andrzej Mostowski, our sad duty is to record also the death of Professor Grigore C. Moisil. In conjunction with the death of Professor A. Joja, his passing away also means that our field has lost its two most distinguished representatives in Romania, indeed the two main hosts and local organizers of the Fourth International Congress of LMPS in Bucharest in 1971.

Professor Grigore C. Moisil was born on 10 January 1906 in Tulcea, Romania, and died in Ottawa Canada, on 21 May, 1973. He received the degree of Docteur es sciences mathématiques in 1929 and was soon afterwards, in 1932, appointed Professor at the University of Jassy. From 1942 on he was connected with the University of Bucharest, where he occupied from 1942 to 1971 the chair of Mathematical Logic and Higher Analysis in the Faculty of Mathematics and from 1971 the chair of the Philosophy of Mathematical Sciences in the Faculty of Philosophy and Law.

Professor Moisil was the author (in some cases a co-author) of no fewer than sixteen books, numerous sets of lecture notes, and a large number of scientific papers. His achievements received the wide recognition they deserved. Professor Moisil was a member of the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania, President of the Society of the Mathematical Sciences of Romania, President of the National Committee of Mathematics of his country, President of the Commission for Cybernetics, and Vice-President of Commission of Mathematical Linguistics. He received the high honors of 'Homme de science émérite' and Hero of Socialist Labor, and he was a recipient of the State Prize of his country. Recognitions and honors he received from abroad include memberships in the Polish Academy of Science and in the Institut International de Philosophie as well as Corresponding Membership in the Academies of Science of Bologna and Messina. Professor Moisil received a honorary doctorate from the Comenius University of Bratislava. His great gifts as an administrator and host which were so impressively displayed at the Fourth International Congress of LMPS were earlier re-sorted to by his own country when he served as the Ambassador of Romania to Ankara, Turkey, from 1947 to 1948.

Professor Moisil served as the second Vice-President of the DLMPS/ IUHPS from 1971 until his death. His passing away is a great loss to our profession and to its international organizations.

After a period of silence in memoriam for these deceased colleagues, the meeting turned to its business agenda.

(1) Verification of Delegates

Professors W. K. Essler and Risto Hilpinen were designated as tellers, and conducted the usual verification of delegates. The following delegates were present. (The category of each national member and the voting entitlement of each International Member is indicated in parentheses.)

National Members:

Members not represented:

Austria (A), Belgium (A), Bulgaria (A), Chile (A), Denmark (A), Greece (A), Israel (A), Monaco (A), Norway (A), Romania (A), Spain (A), Switzerland (A), Turkey (A), Yugoslavia (A).

International Members:

(2) Admission of New Members

The Secretary reported an application from one new International Member, the international Charles S. Peirce Society. A motion to admit (with one vote) was made by Professor A. Burks and seconded by Professor R. Butts. After a brief discussion, the motion was carried unanimously.

(3) Termination of Deficient Members

In the absence of the Treasurer, the Secretary reported a deficiency of membership on the part of Chile (no payment of dues since 1962) and Greece (no payment since 1965). On behalf of the Executive Committee, he moved "That the General Assembly instruct the Executive Committee to take steps to regularize the membership of Chile and Greece, and that if these steps, made over a period of two years, prove unavailing, the membership of these countries shall terminate." This motion was adopted unanimously.

(4) Reclassification of Members

The President urged members to upgrade their classification to a level commensurate with the activity of their countries in our field. It was noted with pleasure that Canada has upgraded its classification to category C and Finland to category B.

A motion moved by Professor A. Burks and seconded by Professor David Kaplan "That the voting allocation of the Philosophy of Science Association be increased from 3 to 5" was adopted unanimously. In the discussion of this motion, widespread sentiment manifested itself to the effect that the new Executive Committee should take steps to rationalize the schedule of votes, dues, and subventions for the International Members.

(5) Minutes of the Previous General Assembly

The President stated that the minutes of the last General Assembly (Bucharest, 1971) have been printed in Synthese 23 (1972), 497-506. The Secretary noted one needed correction to these printed minutes, viz., that p. 503, item (C), line 1 should read "8, 10 and 11" instead of "8 and 11." The minutes, as thus corrected, were adopted unanimously.

(6) President's Report

The President read the following report prepared by his recently deceased predecessor.

The Executive Committee of the Division of Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science of the IUHPS was elected in 1971. Our activity took place in a rather difficult period. The difficulties were created by the general financial situation, an additional difficulty being created by the devaluation of the dollar in which the business of the Division is being transacted. Quite apart of these financial difficulties one should stress here also that the great diversity of our Division, consisting partly of logicians with a purely mathematical background, partly of empirical scientists (e.g., linguists), and partly of philosophers, creates problems of its own. Furthermore our activities must be coordinated in a certain degree with activities of our sister Division consisting of historians of science which increases additional difficulties.

In view of this complicated situation of our Division the Executive Committee decided on a very cautious policy. We decided in particular to cultivate contacts with the Division of History of Science. One of the outward signs of this collaboration was a joint meeting of both divisions devoted to the History of Philosophy which was organized by representatives of both divisions. Another outward sign of our collaboration with the Historians were joint meetings of the Executive Committees of both Divisions which were held regularly each year. We discussed their plans for joint meetings, adjusted our calendar of international Congresses, coordinated the statutes of both Divisions, and discussed plans of further joint activities.

One of our main concerns was to promote as many international contacts as possible. As usual they took form of international meetings organized by various national committees. (The Secreatry's report will furnish details regarding the meetings sponsored by our Division and their character.) We tried to keep a balance between meetings devoted to formal logic and those devoted to philosophy of science. We were particularly happy that it was possible to sponsor several international summer schools on philosophy of science. Formerly summer schools were organized only by logicians. Obviously it would be desirable to give more money to organizers of these schools. The subventions which we were able to pay amounted to $2,000. Also it would be very desirable to have a wider geographical distribution of these schools. They were held mainly in Europe and North America. In the future it would be important to have them also in other continents, in Asia, Africa, and South America. In the present financial climate it is difficult to find organizers who would be willing to undertake this task. Owing to this rather cautious planning of our expenditures we were able to keep our bank balance more or less on a constant level and leave to the next executive committee a balance not substantially lower than the one with the present executive committee started its functions. Looking back at a the period of the past four years, it seems to me that we can characterize it as a period of steady but not strongly innovative activity by the Division. The period of our stewardship has been one of consolidation. I believe that on the basis of what our administration has preserved the next Executive Committee will be able to continue and further develop the work of our organization without the handicap of a backlog of serious problems—be they financial or administrative.

(7) Secretary's Report

Scholarly Activities of the Division

Since September 1971, fourteen international symposia and colloquia have been sponsored by the Division: during 1971 in New York, during 1972 in Helsinki, Orleans, Bonn, and Gent, during 1973 in Uppsala, Jyväskylä, Bristol, Helsinki, and Freiburg, during 1974, in Warsaw, Kiel, Bucharest, and St. Louis. In addition, four summer schools were organized under the Division's sponsorship: Warsaw (1972), Genoa (1973), Salzburg (1974), and Clermont Ferrand (1975). For details see Appendix B. In the area of publication, the Division has continued its annual subvention to the Journal of Symbolic Logic. Considering the very modest resources at our disposal, our organization can, I think, congratulate itself on the effectiveness of our efforts to encourage and support international activities in our field.

Cooperation with Other Organizations

Various efforts have been launched to promote closer touch with other organizations. In collaboration with our sister-division of History of Science an International Conference was held at Jyv[iskyk~i in Finland in the summer of 1973. Our cooperation with this sister-division continues on a cordial basis. It is represented at this meeting by Professor E. Hiebert from whom we shall hear later on.

We have also endeavored to cooperate more closely with the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP) — the sponsor of the great quinquennial world congresses — which is the philosophical counterpart or the humanistic side of this Union, being linked to UNESCO through ICPHS, the humanistic counterpart of our own ICSU. There has been cordial cooperation between the two Secretaries General, and Sir Alfred Ayer, a Vice President of FISP has served as our own Vice President as well. Moreover, we have invited FISP to send a special representative to this Congress, and Professor Evandro Agazzi has been designated to serve in this capacity. (We shall hear from him later on.)

I should like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to some forthcoming meetings of international societies that have special interest for this Division: June 1976: International Congress of the C. S. Peirce Society, Stuttgart September 1976: International Leibniz Symposium, Pads August 1977: International Congress of History of Science, Edinburgh September 1978: Xth World Congress of Philosophy: Düsseldorf

Committee on Publications

The executive committee appointed an ad hoc committee under the chairmanship of Professor L. J. Cohen (other members: A. Polikarov, S. Kanger and R. Rudner) to explore the prospects of furthering the activity of the Division in publications activities. This committee has issued a report which is presented in Appendix C.

Actions Taken to Implement Decisions of the 1971 General Assembly

  1. Naming of two further Assessors: Professors D. Scott and A. Grünbaum
  2. Naming of Second Vice President: Professor Gr. Moisil and upon his demise Professor Sir Alfred Ayer.
  3. Termination of membership of Argentina under the resolution of the preceding General Assembly.

Financial Matters

Two special ad hoc committees were appointed at the last General Assembly. One of these, under Patrick Suppes, was given the mandate of exploring means of supplementing the Division's finances outside the normal framework. In view of the virtually world-wide stringency of funds for academic work, it is not surprising that the work of this committee did not produce any positive result. A second ad hoc committee under Professor Y. Bar-Hillel was appointed "to appraise the feasibility of establishing an International Center for Studies in the Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science." In a similar vein, this committee ultimately reported that the financial climate is not at present conducive to the realization of such a project.

Conclusion

In concluding this report, the Secretary reaches the closing of his term of service. He wishes to thank all of his fellow officers, past and present, for making the period of service a pleasant one. In particular, he is grateful to the President, Professor A. Mostowski, his successor, Professor J. Hintikka and to the Past President, Professor S. Körner, for their unfailing kindness and helpfulness.

(8) Treasurer's Report

In the absence of the Treasurer, the Secretary gave a brief report on the financial status of the division. The Assembly accepted this summary report. The Treasurer's full report was received late, but is included here as Appendix A.

(9) Determination of the Unit of Dues

On behalf of the Executive Committee the President presented the case for increasing the unit of dues from $60 to $100. A motion of this effect was made by Professor John Murdock and seconded by Professor J.J. de Iongh. After discussion in which opposition to this motion was voiced in particular by the Soviet and Hungarian delegations, the motion was put to a vote and passed by 41 to 14.

(10) Delegation of Budgetry Powers to the Executive Committee

On behalf of the Executive Committee, the President moved the usual motion authorizing the new Executive Committee to make budgetry determinations in the interval until the next General Assembly. This motion was passed unanimously.

(11) Elections of Officers and Assessors

On behalf of the Executive Committee in its role as Nomination Committee, the President proposed the following slate of delegates:

The Assembly elected all these proposed candidates unanimously.

(12) Next General Assembly and International Congress

The Secretary reported the arrangement with our historical sister division for each holding its congress every four years on an alternation cycle, with our next turn to come in 1979. He reported that three invitations for such a congress had been received, from Germany for Hannover, Spain for Madrid, and Sweden for Stockholm (or perhaps Uppsala). A straw vote showed a substantial preference for Sweden. However motion was passed unanimously to leave the final decision to be made by the Executive Committee after further consultations. A motion by the President to thank the inviting countries for their generosity was passed unanimously.

(13) Other Business

  1. On behalf of the Executive Committee the President presented a motion "That the Past President should be a member of the Executive Committee rather than merely of the Council." Professor A. Burks moved this motion, which Professor J. J. de Jongh seconded. It was adopted unanimously.
  2. Expressions of a desire for further close cooperation were made by the official delegates of two cognate international societies, Professor E. Hiebert on behalf of our sister organization, the Division of the History of Science, and Professor E. Agazzi on behalf of the FISP (the International Federation of Philosophical Societies).
  3. On the initiative of Professor T. Settle, the Assembly adopted a motion from the floor to recommend to the new Executive Committee to circulate to the membership some four months before the next General Assembly three items: (1) a preliminary Treasurer's report, (2) a preliminary Secretary's report, and (3) the list of official nominations for officers.
  4. On the initiative of Professor L. Kalmár, the assembly adopted a motion from the floor to recommend to the new Executive Committee to explore the possibilities of paying membership dues in currencies other than the U.S. dollar (in particular, nonconvertible currencies).

The President expressed the organization's thanks to the host country, Canada, for its excellent hospitality in the sponsorship of the present Congress. He adjourned the meeting at 6:50 PM.

Appendices

  1. Treasurer's Report
  2. Schedule of Scientific Activities (Past Meetings under DLMPS Sponsorship)
  3. Report of ad Hoc Committee on Publications

[Financial Appendix A to be added]

APPENDIX B
PAST MEETINGS UNDER DIMPS SPONSORSHIP

APPENDIX C INTERNATIONAL UNION OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE:
DIVISION OF LOGIC, METHODOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Report of the Committee on Publications (L. J. Cohen)

The Committee was given three tasks:

  1. To work out arrangements for a News Letter of substantive and professional information of interest to people in the subject-matter area of the Division.
  2. To explore the prospect of some sort of systematic reviewing or abstracting of new publications (presumably only books) in our area.
  3. To study the feasibility of launching a monograph series.

The membership of the committee has been

The committee felt that the most appropriate strategy was for it to carry out a preliminary exploration of the terrain in relation to the three tasks proposed for it, so that the 1975 Assembly should be in a position to decide what further steps might be taken in connection with these tasks.

  1. The only News Letter of any kind at present issued by DLMPS is the publication of its Minutes and Accounts from time to time in Synthese. There is obviously room for a News Letter which would report such items as forthcoming conferences, new journals, new book titles, major research projects, and so on. However the separate publication of such a News Letter in a sufficient number of copies to send one to each of those interested would be prohibitively expensive. The Secretary of DHS is at present organising a News Letter for DHS, and it would in his view be possible to combine a DLMPS News Letter with this. It would be necessary for the Executive Committee to find someone willing to act as Editor, who will seek, receive and collate appropriate items of information and co-ordinate publication with the Secretary of DHS. The actual form of publication would have to be decided in collaboration with DHS. For example, the News Letter might appear twice a year in the pages of some hospitable journal, or copies of it might be circulated to a limited number of universities or other institutions in each member country. Some additional expenditure is inevitably involved here for DLMPS; but this expenditure could vary very widely depending on how information is collected, how much of it is published, and what is the form of publication. If the Assembly wishes to go ahead with such a proiect, it will need to decide, in the light of whatever general system of financial Priorities it may have, the maximum sum to be spent annually by the Editor, until the next Assembly, on the compilation, publication and circulation of the DLMPS News Letter. A budget of $500 would probably be the minimum to secure worthwhile results. Detailed decisions on the various ways in which this sum is to be put to use are best left to the Editor, in consultation with the Executive Committee. It would then be possible to review the situation at the next Assembly in the light of experience gained.
  2. The Chairman of the Committee discussed the problem of systematic coverage for new books with a number of journal editors. It seems clear that for any comprehensive coverage to be arranged it would be necessary for the task to be shared between several existing journals and for a fundamental decision to be taken on the language or languages in which these brief reviews or abstracts should be published. Once the latter decision was taken it would be possible for someone appointed by the Executive as Co-ordinator to approach appropriate journals with specific proposals. But it must be borne in mind that the utility of the project will depend quite considerably on the extent to which the language of the review or abstract differs from that of the original book. For example, as almost all relevant books written in English are already reviewed in English-language journals, it is not these that English-readers want to learn about, and mutatis mutandis for other languages. The project is therefore likely to make considerable demands on the time of those philosophers or logicians who have well-developed interlingual abilities, and it may not be possible to secure adequate co-operation of this nature on a continuing basis without some measure of financial reward. Both for this reason, and because of the quite large amount of extra print and paper involved (if the project is not to be made less useful by being scattered through too many journals), it would be necessary for DLMPS to budget quite a substantial sum if the project is to be taken seriously. The Co-ordinator himself would have to be prepared to devote quite a lot of time to writing letters to publishing houses in various countries as well as to journals, and the budget would have to include a sum for his expenses also. Itis difficult to believe that the project would be worth launching unless the Assembly was able, and willing, to back it with a subsidy of somewhere between one and five thousand dollars a year, though the actual cost could not be determined, even approximately, in advance of the fundamental decision about the language or languages in which the reviews or abstracts are to be published. Obviously such a decision would be a delicate and tricky problem, about which the Committee would not wish to make a positive recommendation of its own. But it does wish to point out that since so much material in the field of DLMPS is already published in English, it may be possible to achieve some substantial economy of scale by restricting the project to the task of acquainting those who, whatever their native language, can at least read English with the main contents of books that are not written in that language. It is doubtful whether an equal or greater economy could be achieved by an analogous restriction in relation to some other language.
  3. There are at present a considerable number of publishers' series that welcome books in the field of DLMPS, e.g. Library of Exact Philosophy (Springer-Verlag), Episteme (Reidel), Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy (Oxford University Press), Melbourne International Philosophy Series (Nijhoff), Library of Philosophy and Logic (Blackwell), etc. There are also a considerable number of other publishers who publish such books without having series specifically designed for them, e.g. university presses in several countries, and commercial publishers like Methuen, Feltrinelli, etc. Though some of these publishers tend to charge rather high prices for their books, by no means all of them do; and the Committee did not feel that there was any need for DLMPS to sponsor its own monograph series. The Committee is not aware of any evidence that books on logic or philosophy of science which deserve publication are failing to secure it because of current economic difficulties. It felt that if the Assembly could afford to budget any funds for either purpose, the project of a comprehensive reviewing system was more deserving of assistance than that of a subsidised monograph series.