14-17 February 2003, FotFS IV : The History of the
Concept of the Formal Sciences, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet Bonn Mathematisches
Institut

"Foundations of the Formal Sciences" (FotFS) is a series of interdisciplinary conferences in mathematics, philosophy, computer science and linguistics. The main goal is to reestablish the traditionally strong links between these areas of research that have been lost in the past decades.

The talks of the conferences will be addressed at a general audience of mathematicians, logicians, philosophers, computer scientists and linguists. The series FotFS started with conferences in Berlin (1999), Bonn (2000) and Vienna (2001). The first three meetings explored different interdisciplinary aspects of the Formal Sciences, e.g., the applications of Mathematical Logic in Linguistics and Philosophy (FotFS II, Bonn) or the different aspects of the notion of Complexity (FotFS III, Vienna). The proceedings of the first three conferences will be published in the journal Synthese and the book series "Trends in Logic".

This fourth meeting of the series will be devoted to a reflection on the object of interest: What are the Formal Sciences? How do they differ from the Natural Sciences and the Arts? How have they been perceived through history?

The audience of FotFS IV will be mainly philosophers and historians of mathematics and science, and their goal will be to develop both synchronous and diachronous descriptions and classifications of the concept of the Formal Sciences from antiquity to the 21st century. Invited Speakers include Kevin de Laplante (Ames IA), Ivor Grattan-Guinness (London), Jens Hoyrup (Roskilde), Christoph Kann (Duesseldorf), Susanne Prediger (Bremen), Guenter Schenk (Halle), Christian Thiel (Erlangen), and Joanne Twining (Denver CO).

We would like to invite all researchers to present their thoughts on (*) the problem of classifying or defining the Formal Sciences, (*) the historical development of the Formal Sciences, or (*) the relationship of the Formal Sciences to the Natural Sciences and the Arts throughout history or at a particular point in history at our conference. There will be a refereed proceedings volume for which all participants can submit their contribution to FotFS IV.

Deadline for submissions: November 1, 2002. For more information and submission guidelines, please see http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/people/fotfs/IV/, or contact the organizers at fotfs at math.uni-bonn.de.