This bulletin was published in Synthese Volume 32 No. 1-2 (1975) 249-265, DOI 10.1007/BF00485118.
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.
Local Organizing Committee
Programme Committee
Chairmen of Sectional Committees
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[Financial Appendix A to be added]
The Committee was given three tasks:
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.