With the present volume, the Handbook of the History of Logic makes its first appearance. Members of the research communities in logic, history of logic and philosophy of logic, as well as those in kindred areas such as computer science, artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, argumentation theory and history of ideas, have long felt the lack of a large and comprehensive history of logic. They have been well-served since the early sixties by William and Martha Kneale’s single volume The Development of Logic, published by Oxford University Press. But what such a work cannot hope to do, and does not try to do, is provide the depth and detail, as well as the interpretive coverage, that a multi-volume approach makes possible. This is the driving impetus of the Handbook, currently projected to run to several large volumes, which the publisher will issue when ready, rather than in strict chronological order. Already in production is the volume The Rise of Modern Logic: From Leibniz to Frege. In process are volumes on Mediaeval and Renaissance Logic, The Many-Valued Turn in Logic, and British Logic in the Nineteenth Century. Others will be announced in due course.
As with the present volume, the Handbook’s authors have been chosen for their capacity to write authoritative and very substantial chapters on their assigned topics; and they have been given the freedom to develop their own interpretations of things. In a number of cases, chapters are the equivalents of small monographs, and thus offer researchers and other interested readers advantages that only a multi-volume treatment can sustain.
In offering these volumes to the scholarly public, the Editors do so with the conviction that the dominant figures in the already long history of logic are the producers of theories and proponents of views that are possessed of more than antiquarian interest, and are deserving of the philosophical and technical attention of the present-day theorist. The Handbook is an earnest of a position developed by the Editors in their Editorial, “Cooperate with you logic ancestors”, Journal of Logic, Language and Information, 8:iii–v, 1999.
The Handbook of the History of Logic aims at being a definitive research work for any member of the relevant research communities. The Editors wish to extend their warmest thanks to the Handbook’s authors. Thanks are also due and happily given to Jane Spurr in London and Dawn Collins in Lethbridge for their indispensable production assistance, and for invaluable follow-up in Amsterdam to our colleagues at Elsevier, Arjen Sevenster and Andy Deelen. The Editors also acknowledge with gratitude the support of Professor Bhagwan Dua and Professor Christopher Nicol, Deans of Arts and Science, University of Lethbridge, and of Professor Mohan Matthan, Head of Philosophy and Professor Nancy Gallini, Dean of Arts, University of British Columbia. Carol Woods gave the project her able production support in Vancouver and is the further object of our gratitude. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom also supported Woods as Visiting Fellow in 2000–2003, and for this the Editors express their warm thanks.