In this week's Science Café Adam and guests discuss a two thousand year-old system of reasoning and argument which leaps into action every time you turn on a computer... logic.

Broadcast Tuesday 4th October at 7pm

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Logic is the basis of every detective novel and TV cop show. It's a key part of how we analyse both criminal and scientific evidence. And whenever you trust your life or livelihood to a computer - in a car, a plane, a hospital, a bank or to communicate, you're relying on logic.

Aristotle first set down the principles of logic more than two thousand years ago and philosophers have been arguing about it ever since. It wasn't until the nineteenth century that several key thinkers including a Welshman, Bertrand Russell, began to set down how logic is applied to mathematics. And symbolic and mathematical logic are at the heart of all computer software.

Joining Adam to explore the meaning, the history and the uses of logic are Dr. Christopher Norris, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cardiff; Dr. John Tucker, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Swansea; and Dr. Tom Crick, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff.

Links

What is Logic?

Bertrand Russell