Conventionalism about logic

also nominalism about logic, logical conventionalism

The view that logical laws are human linguistic or social conventions — extremely useful and nearly universal, but not discovered mind-independent facts, closer to agreed-upon rules than to found truths.

Sources

  • Rudolf Carnap, The Logical Syntax of Language (1934), the classic defence of logical truth as convention
  • W.V.O. Quine, "Truth by Convention" (1936), the standard critical response

Related entries

Atlas entries are written from sources Debby has read, not from memory. They explain a thing; they do not settle an argument. The arguments are in the Library.