This calendar showcases SWIP-Analytic events and a number of talks within train distance of the New York City area given by women working in analytic philosophy. Email our webmaster at [email protected] to suggest events to add to the calendar!

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SWIP-Analytic Essay Prize Presentation: Marion Boulicault (MIT), “The Contingency of Logical Necessity”
April 21, 2017 @ 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
ABSTRACT. According to a standard account, logical relations between propositions exist independently of contingent facts, norms and practices. David Bloor challenges this standard account by arguing that, rather than existing independently of contingent facts, logical relations arise from them: “logical necessity is a moral and social relation” (1983, 121, emphasis added). In this essay, I examine Bloor’s argument for this bold claim. After first considering and rejecting an objection raised by Ian Hacking, I propose an alternative objection to Bloor’s social account of logical necessity. However, I end by suggesting that this objection poses a parallel justificatory problem for the standard account of logical necessity. In other words, both the standard and the social account of logical necessity suffer from parallel problems of justification.