The philosophy of logic of John Corcoran

This talk surveys the philosophy of logic of John Corcoran by focusing on some of its characteristic themes: his understanding of logic as formal epistemology articulating the ontic-epistemic distinction of classical metaphysics, the Socratic belief-knowledge distinction, and the Aristotelian truth-knowledge distinction; his conception of mathematical logic as instrumental when considering mathematical logics as models of underlying reasoning found in the practice of proof; his tireless search for a careful and successful communication in a community of thinkers eliminating ambiguity of key terms and embracing ethical values; his discussion of argumentations and logic as a philosophical realization of the previous dichotomies, allowing precise definitions of key concepts, such as, argument, argumentation, proof, deduction, fallacy, and paradox; finally, his recovering and articulation of the XIX century information-theoretic conception of validity, exploring its heuristic power in the study of omega arguments and suggesting the existence of different paradigms of logical consequence equally entrenched in the theory and practice of logic.