Prompted by the changes to the ‘Women in Logic’ list announced earlier this week,* Erich Reck writes to inquire on historical figures of female logicians. The ‘Women in Logic’ list focuses on researchers currently active, but Erich rightly points out that it would be very important to pay more attention to female logicians from the past, in particular but not exclusively in the context of logic courses.
A similar work of ‘rediscovery’ of the importance of female philosophers for the history of philosophy has been undertaken by a number of people (see here); it is a well-known phenomenon that history tends to be rather ‘forgetful’ of these important female figures (as well as of other groups – see my post on the neglect of Arabic Philosophy in standard curricula). But I am not aware of any list of historical female figures specifically for logic, so I’d like to ask readers to add suggestions here in comments (another list in the making…).
So far, the following notable female logicians from the past have come up in my correspondence with Erich:
- Ada Lovelace
- Christine Ladd-Franklin
- Emily Elizabeth Constance-Jones
- Susanne Langer
- Ruth Barcan-Marcus (a legendary figure even before her recent demise!)
Further suggestions would be most welcome!
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* If you are a woman working on logic-related topics, please go add yourself to the list asap!
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