There will be several workshops as part of the 3rd World Congress on Logic and Religion. They are more than mere sessions inside the congress; each workshop has its own keynote speaker(s) and Call for Papers, and its last activity will be a discussion led by the keynote speaker(s) with the participants on the topics and papers presented in the workshop. 

The following workshops will take place within the 3rd WoCoLoR:

• Consciousness and the Self

• Formal Natural Theology

• Judaism, Christianity and Logic

• Logic and Religion in Schopenhauer

• Logic of Paradise

• Mathematics and Religion

• Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Logic

• Catuskoti and Sunyata

What is consciousness? How is it related to the self? And how are consciousness and the self connected with the brain? Do we need an immaterial self (soul) to account for consciousness? What are the limits of a physicalist account of reality? Can pansychism satisfactorily account for consciousness and the self? What is the self in world religions? What contributions can they give to the philosophical problem of consciousness? These are some of the questions that shall be addressed in the workshop "Consciousness and the Self".

We invite submissions of contributed papers on topics related to these questions, including but not restricted to:

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Physicalistic accounts of consciousness and the self

• Substance dualism and dualistic approaches to consciousness 

• Pansychistic and cosmopsychistic approaches to consciousness and the self

• The concept of soul in philosophical and world religious traditions

• Theories of consciousness vs. theories of God (e.g. panentheism vs. panshychism)

Abstracts must have a maximum of 600 words and be written in English according to our template; they must be submitted via Easychair (note that prior registration with EasyChair is required). In the submission, one of the keywords must be "Consciousness and the Self". At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the congress. 

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Accepted  abstracts will be published in the congress proceedings, which will be available during the congress. After the meeting authors will be invited to submit a complete version of their works, which will be peer-reviewed and published in a book and/or special issues of journals with publishers of international recognition. Peer-reviewed papers of previous WoCoLoR’s appeared as special issues of Logica Universalis (Springer), Sophia (Springer) and the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). For more details click here.

CHAIR

• Ricardo Silvestre

       Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil

Brandon Rickabaugh

Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida (USA)

Shewli Dutta

Vidyasagar University (India)

In this workshop, we aim to address interdependent questions at the intersection between Logic and Philosophy of Religion. We aim to cast light on the nature, the logic and the internal coherence of religious discourse.

A promising way of approaching the issues of Natural Theology is using tools of Formal Logic. Such approach configures an area of Logical Philosophy of Religion called Formal Natural Theology (FNT). On one side, it is possible to logically analyze systems that have already been established historically, on other it is possible to propose new systems with interesting results.

These problems and related ones will be addressed during the workshop “Formal Natural Theology”, which will be part of the 3rd WoCoLoR.

We dedicate this workshop to Józef Maria Bocheński, a great logician and the author of famous works The Logic of Religion and The Five Ways, in the 25th anniversary of his death in the Bocheński’s Year, officially celebrated in Poland in 2020.

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We invite submissions of contributed papers on topics including but not restricted to:

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• The consistency of the attributes of the God of Classical Theism

• The logic of religious discourse 

• The existence of the God Creator of Classical Theism

• The logical problem of evil

• Paraconsistent logic and philosophy of religion

Abstracts must have a maximum of 600 words and be written in English according to our template; they must be submitted via Easychair (note that prior registration with EasyChair is required). In the submission, one of the keywords must be "Formal Natural Theology". At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the congress.

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Accepted abstracts will be published in the congress proceedings, which will be available during the congress. After the meeting authors will be invited to submit a complete version of their works, which will be peer-reviewed and published in Historia Logica (College Publications). Peer-reviewed papers of previous WoCoLoR’s appeared as special issues of Logica Universalis (Springer), Sophia (Springer) and the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). For more details click here.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Brandon Rickabaugh

Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida (USA)

• Fábio Bertato

       University of Campinas, Brazil​

• Marcin Trepczyński

       University of Warsaw, Poland

• Mikołaj Sławkowski-Rode

       University of Warsaw, Poland

Religion exists only in specific traditions. How similar and how different are the logical concepts present in Jewish and Christian traditions? What are the specific issues in the two traditions that have logical aspects? And how similar or how divergent are they? Does rationality mean the same in Judaism and Christianity? Is it possible to detect logical elements of Christian-Jewish polemics? And of cooperation and dialogue of the two traditions? In addition, because of the location of the conference, it would be good to relate these questions to Hinduism and other Asian traditions. Do they provide new insights? 

These problems and related ones will be addressed during the workshop "Judaism, Christianity and Logic", which will be part of the 3rd WoCoLoR.

We invite submissions of contributed papers on topics including but not restricted to:​

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• Logic in Christian theological discourse

• Logic in Jewish theological discourse

• Logical Problem of Trinity 

• Talmudic logic  

• Logical aspects common to Christian and Jewish discourses 

• Logical aspects opposing Christian and Jewish discourses 

• The concept of rationality in Jewish and Christian traditions 

• Jewish-Christian polemics and logic 

• Logic and Jewish-Christian dialogue

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Abstracts must have a maximum of 600 words and be written in English according to our template; they must be submitted via Easychair (note that prior registration with EasyChair is required). In the submission, one of the keywords must be "Judaism, Christianity and Logic". At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the congress.

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Accepted abstracts will be published in the congress proceedings, which will be available during the congress. After the meeting authors will be invited to submit a complete version of their works, which will be peer-reviewed and published in a book and/or special issues of journals with publishers of international recognition. Peer-reviewed papers of previous WoCoLoR’s appeared as special issues of Logica Universalis (Springer), Sophia (Springer) and the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). For more details click here.

• Stanislaw Krajewski

       University of Warsaw, Poland​

• Marcin Trepczyński

       University of Warsaw, Poland

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Arthur Schopenhauer and his role in logic and religion is marked by opposites: Whereas Ernst Bloch said Schopenhauer was “the most Christian philosopher”, Fritz Mauthner called him the “prince of atheists”. Whereas Dale Jacquette explained that Schopenhauer had “dubious qualifications as logician” and therefore did not really belong to this discipline, Albert Menne stated that "Schopenhauer had an excellent command of the rules of formal logic (much better than Kant, for example)". The views on Schopenhauer as a religious and logical philosopher are therefore highly controversial. Only recently, however, it has become known to research that Schopenhauer was as intensely concerned with logic and mathematics as he was with religion. However, it has long been known that many of the topics discussed by Schopenhauer are in the field of tension between logical justification and religious conviction such as suicide, theodicy, salvation, instrumental reason, enlightenment, optimism and pessimism, nihilism, mysticism, irrationalism to name but a few examples. 

Abstracts on all aspects of research on Logic and Religion in Schopenhauer are welcome. Here is a list of possible topics: 

• Logic, Mathematics and Religion in Schopenhauer’s System

• Religious Examples in Schopenhauer’s Logic and Eristics

• Schopenhauer’s Logical Analysis of Christianity/ Buddhism/ Hinduism/ Sufism etc.

• The Logic of Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Religion

• Logic of Nihilism or Pessimism in Schopenhauer

• Theodicy and Logical Justifications

• Rational Arguments for or against Suicide 

• Religion and Enlightenment in Schopenhauer

• (Ir)rationality of Religion; Instrumental Reason and Religion

Abstracts must have a maximum of 600 words and be written in English according to our template; they must be submitted via Easychair (note that prior registration with EasyChair is required). In the submission, one of the keywords must be "Logic and Religion in Schopenhauer". At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the congress.

The paradise is a famous notion in many religions. It may have different names and may come with different related notions. As a substantive, it is considered as a location, but there is also the qualitative “paradisiacal”, that applies to many situations and can be related to different states of mind. The aim of this workshop is to study the logical aspects of paradise and  paradisiacality.  

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We invite submissions of contributed papers on topics related to these questions, including but not restricted to:

• Logical relations of paradise with similar, different or opposite locations, such as hell, purgatory, limbo, earth, heaven.

• Aspects of the paradisiac mind (happiness, delightedness) and its logical relations with other psychic dispositions such as hope, fear, anger, confidence, joy.

• Ways to reach the paradise using logic to avoid illusions, misleading gurus, wrong behaviors and to develop good understanding, balancing emotions with the intellect.

• The logical structure of the paradise: kinds of things and beings which are inside paradise (stones, rivers, seas, plants, trees, animals, humans, divine beings) and the relations between them.

Abstracts must have a maximum of 600 words and be written in English according to our template; they must be submitted via Easychair (note that prior registration with EasyChair is required). In the submission, one of the keywords must be "Logic of Paradise". At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the congress.

Miray Yazgan

Istanbul University (Turkey)

While mathematics and theology seem to be opposite to each other and mathematical rationality seems to have nothing in common with religious faith one can search for mutual influences and inspirations. What were historical convergences? Can mathematics help theologians? Can more advanced mathematics be more helpful? Is infinity a common point? Can we detect religious origins of mathematical concepts? Is religious language present in the kitchen of mathematics? Some outstanding mathematicians were very religious: was that helpful in their research work? 

There have been attempts to argue for the answer "Yes" to each of these questions. One can also argue against. These problems and related ones, including the influence of Indian and Chinese religious traditions on the development of mathematics in the respective cultures, will be addressed during the workshop "Mathematics and Religion", which will be part of WoCoLoR 2020.

We invite submissions of contributed papers on topics including but not restricted to:
 

• Religious sources of mathematical concepts

• Theological motives in mathematics

• Mathematical models in theology

• Mathematical motives in religious discourse 

• Infinity in mathematics and infinity in theology

• Important mathematicians who were religiously involved 

Abstracts must have a maximum of 600 words and be written in English according to our template; they must be submitted via Easychair (note that prior registration with EasyChair is required). In the submission, one of the keywords must be "mathematics and Religion". At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the congress.

​Piergiorgio Odifreddi

University of Turin (Italy)

HINDUISM, BUDDHISM, JAINISM AND LOGIC

The aim of this workshop is to explore the philosophical and logical aspects pertaining to religion coming from the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain perspectives. The participants will inquire into how the relations between logic and religion are supported by rational inquiry on religious matters. They will scrupulously examine a wide range of arguments postulated by Indian philosophers, logicians, and theologians. The main themes will center around: the doctrine of karma and the related concepts of suffering, accumulation of merits, and detachment, the belief in an afterlife, rebirth, and/or liberation, the main arguments for the existence and non-existence of a permanent self, and the disputes between the theists and atheists over the existence of the divine realm(s) and God.

We invite submissions of contributed papers on topics related to these questions, including but not restricted to:

• Philosophico-logical arguments for the possibility of liberation and reincarnation.

• Retributive dimension of the doctrine of karma.

• Logic and the concept of God, especially the arguments for and against the existence of God.

• Theism and Atheism in the Indian religious-philosophical traditions.

• Arguments for the existence and persistence of a self

• Ethical implications of religious beliefs

Paper proposals drawing upon original sources written in classical Indian languages (Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit) and papers with comparative and/or cross-cultural components are particularly welcome.

Abstracts must have a maximum of 600 words and be written in English according to our template; they must be submitted via Easychair (note that prior registration with EasyChair is required). In the submission, one of the keywords must be "Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Logic". At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the congress.

Accepted abstracts will be published in the congress proceedings, which will be available during the congress. After the meeting authors will be invited to submit a complete version of their works, which will be peer-reviewed and published in a book and/or special issues of journals with publishers of international recognition. Peer-reviewed papers of previous WoCoLoR’s appeared as special issues of Logica Universalis (Springer), Sophia (Springer) and the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). For more details click here.

CHAIR

• Agnieszka Rostalska

       Ghent University, Belgium​

Purushottama Bilimoria

RUDN University (Russia)

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Sachchidanand Mishra

Banares Hindu University (India)

CATUSKOTI AND SUNYATA

Buddha Sakyamuni famously preached Sunyata which was recorded in Prajnaparamita sutra. Also in course of his numerous Dialogical engagements with the contemporary audience, the Buddha used to talk about four possibilities. Given any question, Buddha used to advocate four options - Yes, No, Both, Neither - the celebrated CATUSKOTI (Greek Tetra lemma). Formally, given an object A and a property P there may be four possibilities: A is P, A is non-P, A is neither P nor non-P, A is both P and non-P. This stance continued to stir debate about the metaphysical implications behind this.
 

Queen Mallika of Koshal famously asked the Buddha a few questions regarding Prithwi ( world ) and Atman ( Soul ): 1. Is Prithvi eternal? 2. Is Prithvi non-eternal? 3.  Is Prithvi finite? 4. Is Prithvi Infinite? 5.  Is Body different from Atman? 6. Whether Tathagata can live still after Death?  7. Whether Tathagata cannot live after Death? 8. Whether He can be in a state both living and non-living? 9. Whether He can take rebirth after Death?  Buddha is known to have firmly refused to answer these questions and he declared these questions as irrelevant as they can’t help to attain Nirvana.  What messages can we possibly read from the Buddha’s refusal to answer these questions? Was this a strategy to dispense with Metaphysics or did he implicitly advocate a separate category for these types of questions which were considered to be unanswerable? 

Nagarjuna substantiated this position later in terms of self-contradictory nature of all our means of acquiring knowledge .  He famously argued Reality (or no-Reality) as even beyond the framework of four possibilities and hence chatuskotibinirmukto — Sunya! Perhaps the logical framework of paraconsistency is one of the most challenging ways to look at this stance of Buddha and Nagarjuna
 

This workshop is intended to focus on the relationship of Catuskoti and Sunyata in Buddhist literature as well as some modern logical counterparts, particularly in relation to both options in Catuskoti.

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We invite submissions of contributed papers on the following aspects of CATUSKOTI:

• Use of CATUSKOTI in Indian debates

• Its connection with SUNYATA

• Modern logic-systems having similarity with CATUSKOTI

• Its relevance, if any, in modern logical discourse

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Abstracts must have a maximum of 600 words and be written in English according to our template; they must be submitted via Easychair (note that prior registration with EasyChair is required). In the submission, one of the keywords must be "Catuskoti & Sunyata". At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the congress.

Accepted abstracts will be published in the congress proceedings, which will be available during the congress. After the meeting authors will be invited to submit a complete version of their works, which will be peer-reviewed and published in Historia Logica (College Publications). Peer-reviewed papers of previous WoCoLoR’s appeared as special issues of Logica Universalis (Springer), Sophia (Springer) and the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). For more details click here.

• Mihir K. Chakraborty

       Jadavpur University (Kolkata, India)       

• Debajyoti Gangopadhyay

       Annada College, V.B.U. (Hazaribag, India)

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Shynata and Catuskoti in Madhyamik Philosophy

Ngawang Samten

​Central University for Tibetan Studies (India)

Does Catuskoti Logically imply Sunyat?

​Umashankar Vyas

Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (India)