Inaugural lecture: Reasoning about Reasoning

The validity of theories about reasoning will be addressed in Professor Edwin Mares' inaugural professorial lecture next week.

Professor of Philosophy Edwin Mares is an expert in logic—the study of reasoning. The research he will present at his inaugural lecture is something he has worked on since joining Victoria 15 years ago, looking at linking contemporary theories of information to our understanding of reasoning.

"Unlike a psychologist, philosophers study reasoning in a normative way. We want to know not how people reason, but how they should reason. This lecture will explain the standard technique used to determine the rules of correct reasoning and argue that this technique is lacking. I'll outline an alternative method, based on recent work on the nature of information, and indicate ways in which it is superior," says Professor Mares.

He has crafted his lecture to be of interest to a general audience—it involves no mathematics or other technical material.

"Victoria's inaugural lecture series is an opportunity for new professors to provide family, friends, colleagues and the wider community an insight to their specialist area of study. It is also an opportunity for the University to celebrate and acknowledge our valued professors," says Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pat Walsh.

"Professor Edwin Mares is an outstanding philosopher, researcher and teacher. Victoria University is privileged to have had him in our School of Philosophy for the last 15 years, and we congratulate him on his promotion to professorship," says Professor Walsh.

Since coming to Victoria University from Canada in 1993, Professor Mares has taught a wide range of courses in logic, ethics, philosophy of science and philosophy of language. He wrote a book in 2004 about relevant logic—his main subject of study—and has co-authored one with colleague Stuart Brock on realistic and anti-realistic stances on a wide range of philosophical issues.

In 2006 he secured a Marsden grant worth $465,000 with mathematics professor Rob Goldblatt. The two are co-authoring a book on the main aspects of his inaugural lecture, due out in 2010. He was also involved in setting up Victoria's logic programme which spans across philosophy, mathematics, computer science and linguistics, and was a founding member of Victoria's Centre for Logic, Language and Computation in 2001.

The lecture will be held in the Hunter Council Chamber, level 2, Hunter Building, Gate 1 or 2, Kelburn Parade, Wellington, on Tuesday 6 May at 6pm. Anyone is welcome to attend.