# Which academic discipline does logic belong to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689 "2022-03-08T16:12:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/1 "2022-03-08T16:12:25Z")
It seems that most academic writing on logic, in terms of papers and textbooks, is written by philosophers. Is it generally considered to be a branch of philosophy, and university teaching takes place in these departments? Looking at an arbitrary logic paper, it seems that this is a highly formalised area that uses strictly defined notations, so one might wonder whether that doesn’t rather put it into mathematics. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/2 "2022-03-08T16:30:17Z")
Anecdotally, my class in logic at university was offered by the philosophy department. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/3 "2022-03-08T16:31:22Z")
Same. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/4 "2022-03-08T16:32:45Z")
I got formal logic in college as part of the discrete mathematics class, which was in the mathematics department. Logic is part of the intersection of math and philosophy, and properly belongs to both. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/5 "2022-03-08T16:36:57Z")
On that note: symbolic logic was a philosophy class at my college, but met a (liberal arts curriculum) math requirement. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/6 "2022-03-08T16:37:44Z")
I would agree. In our school, it was in the philosophy department, but it satisfied a “formal studies” distribution requirement (where math and computer classes resided), and not the distribution requirement where most philosophy classes were (“ethics and values.”) So it’s a bit of both. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/7 "2022-03-08T16:38:26Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Anecdotally, my class in logic at university was offered by the philosophy department. It was for me as well. I was _really_ confused when I started my second semester of philosophy class and it was more like a math class, especially since the first semester was pretty much what you’d expect (ie, discussing philosophers and their philosophies). Luckily for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it. But it still seemed like it should have been a math class. The only thing I’ve been able to come up with is that it’s aimed at law students. While it feels algebraic in nature, at it’s core, it was about showing how to take one set of things and show how it proves another set of things. It also heavily covered common biases that crop up on those same situations, but are much easier to see when represented with letters rather than concepts, at least if your brain is wired that way, which it tends to be for the hard sciences students. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/8 "2022-03-08T16:51:53Z")
My logic classes were also taught out of the philosophy department, although they were required for my computer science degree. I think philosophy has historically been the discipline that originated methods for how to reason, and developed the predicate calculus and propositional calculus so that wise men could reason about whether Socrates is mortal. It bled over into math when people figured out that they could use AND/OR to build machines. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/9 "2022-03-08T16:58:46Z")
Mine as well. And it was a requirement for the computer science degree. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/10 "2022-03-08T16:59:04Z")
The University of Waterloo has a number of mathematical logic classes in the Pure Mathematics department. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/11 "2022-03-08T17:01:09Z")
[Mathematical logic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_logic) is real enough. I’m sure even laymen have heard of the continuum hypothesis, completeness/incompleteness theorems, set theory, etc. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/12 "2022-03-08T17:20:56Z")
Formal logic was a requirement for my philosophy degree, back in the 70’s. I passed it, but not easily, because while I found much of it useful I objected to one of the axioms; so instead of being able to answer on exams in a fashion that made sense to me, I instead had to just memorize the answers I was supposed to give. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/13 "2022-03-08T17:40:20Z")
What axiom did you object to? I really would like to know. Excluded middle? At McGill, logic is taught in both departments and I am not clear on how different they are. I taught the math dept course a few times and it was very formal, kind of like HS geometry. The only answer to the OP is: both. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/14 "2022-03-08T17:45:09Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > What axiom did you object to? I really would like to know. Excluded middle? Yup, that’s the one. It probably didn’t help that the book for the class used the example “Either it is raining or it is not raining”; and I was in Rochester, NY and first read that line on a day on which it was clearly doing something that was neither raining nor not raining. And the book had been written by the professor giving the class, so I didn’t figure it was worth trying to argue with him about it. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/15 "2022-03-08T17:49:29Z")
My logic classes were taught through the Computer Science department. Logic is probably about as hard-science as philosophy gets. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/16 "2022-03-08T18:00:24Z")
I’ve always had problems reconciling Logic/Math, the way it was taught in school. (This from my perspective of upbringing in India) The reason is that Logic taught in school is primarily Western or Greek Logic or Western Philosophy. Its different from Eastern Philosophies / Logic. But there is no Eastern Math / Western Math. I have to mentally recalibrate when thinking math / science. For example, A particle can be wave or particle, or both … is intuitive per Eastern logic but counterintuitive per Western logic. (Please note that I am not claiming that Eastern logic discovered or knew Quantum mechanics - it didn’t. Just saying that Duality is a central theme in Eastern logic and makes some science concepts intuitive.) I also have trouble reconciling - “I think , therefore I am” which is Western logic to “I am, therefore I think” which is Eastern logic when contemplating consciousness or AI. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/17 "2022-03-08T18:03:18Z")
I took logic twice, once in a philosophy class and once in a mathematics class. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/18 "2022-03-08T18:05:46Z")
Is logic taught in Computer Science different than logic taught in philosophy? (really asking…I’m not sure we are talking about the same thing) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/19 "2022-03-08T18:10:19Z")
But it is formal logic, so you do not have to reconcile anything, merely memorize the axiom(s). Then prove they are consistent… ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689/20 "2022-03-08T18:16:51Z")
I’m not sure, since I didn’t take a logic class taught by a philosophy department 😉 At least in concept, they are the same topic, but I’m sure the focus is different. It’s been a while, but it was primarily predicate logic, and focused on the sorts of things that are relevant to solving relevant computer-sciency problems and assumed a certain technical capability. I imagine relatively few philosophy departments have their students program in Prolog, for example. But maybe they do? It was largely symbolic math, but probably differed somewhat from a _math_ or _philosophy_ logic class because while those disciplines often care about what’s provable or knowable, _computer science_ is much more interested in the subset that is _computable_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-academic-discipline-does-logic-belong-to/960689.md?page=2)