What Isn’t Obvious about “Obvious”: A Data-Driven Approach to Philosophy of Logic

Abstract

It is often said that 'every logical truth is obvious' (Quine 1970: 82), that the 'axioms and rules of logic are true in an obvious way' (Murawski 2014: 87), or that 'logic is a theory of the obvious' (Sher 1999: 207). In this chapter, I set out to test empirically how the idea that logic is obvious is reflected in the scholarly work of logicians and philosophers of logic. My approach is data-driven. That is to say, I propose that systematically searching for patterns of usage in databases of scholarly works, such as JSTOR, can provide new insights into the ways in which the idea that logic is obvious is reflected in logical and philosophical practice, i.e., in the arguments that logicians and philosophers of logic actually make in their published work.

Is Philosophy Exceptional? A Corpus-Based, Quantitative Study

“…See, for example, Weatherson' A History of Philosophy Journals: Volume 1 Evidence from Topic Modeling, 1876-2013 (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~weath/lda/). 10 For an example of the application of corpus-based methods to philosophy of logic, see Mizrahi (2019). Mizrahi (2019, p. 203) uses corpus-based methods "to test empirically how the idea that 'logic is obvious' is reflected in logical and philosophical practice."…”

Proof, Explanation, and Justification in Mathematical Practice

“…Their empirical study, however, was not designed to find out how frequently explanations and justifications occur in mathematics.4 The empirical methods employed in this paper are the methods of data science and corpus linguistics, such as text mining and corpus analysis, rather than the empirical methods of social science. For examples of the former methods applied to questions in the philosophy of mathematics and logic, seePease et al (2018) andMizrahi (2019). For an example of the latter methods applied to questions in the philosophy of mathematics, seeInglis and Aberdein (2014).…”

“…Ashton and Mizrahi (2018a) use a similar methodology and the tools of data science to investigate appeals to intuition in philosophy. See alsoAshton and Mizrahi (2018b) andMizrahi (2019).…”

“…On the use of case studies in philosophy of science, seeMizrahi (2020). 11 For more on the application of text mining and corpus analysis methods to philosophy of logic and mathematics, seePease et al (2018) andMizrahi (2019).…”