Fanning the Flames of Reason Johan van Benthem Abstract: On 26 September 2014, Johan van Benthem, Professor of Pure and Applied Logic, delivered his valedictory lecture in the auditorium of the University of Amsterdam. Modern logic is the broad, exact science of information directed behaviour that plays an important role in connecting the humanities, exact sciences and social sciences at the university, and which forms the bedrock of our information society. In his valedictory lecture, van Benthem illustrates the creation of this scientific field and the most important future challenges facing it. Note: This is a revised version of a valedictory lecture on my experiences with where contemporary logic came from, and is going. The text appeared in the "Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde", March 2015, in a Russian translation in "Vox" (Moscow), and in a Chinese translation in "Studies in Logic" (Guangzhou). The original version of the lecture is available on the ILLC website under Valedictory Lectures.