Introduction: History and Philosophy of Logical Notation

History and Philosophy of Logic. 2018. Vol. 39. No. 1. P. 1–2.

Bellucci F., Moktefi A., Pietarinen A.

What is a logical notation? Intuitively, a notation is a sort of language, and a logical

notation is a language for the representation of logic. Since at least the seventeenth cen-

tury, methods of representing logical expressions have made use of symbols, diagrams,

charts and graphs, rather than items of historical or natural languages alone. The phrase

‘philosophy of notation’ was coined by the American logician Charles S. Peirce in 1885

to mean ‘the illustration of principles which underlie all algebraic notation’ (

Peirce

1885

p. 183). If with the expression ‘philosophy of logic’ it is currently meant the philosophical

study of the nature and types of logic, with the expressions ‘philosophy of notation’ and

‘philosophy of logical notation’ we mean the philosophical study of the nature and types

of notation and, in particular, logical notation.