The formalization of logic and the issue of meaning
pp. 113-137
in: Gérard Assayag, Hans G. Feichtinger, José F. Rodrigues (eds), Mathematics and music, Berlin, Springer, 2002Abstract
This paper is not directly concerned with musical logic, because I am unable to raise pertinent issues concerning it. But, as is clear from the introductory paper by François Nicolas, some parallelism is not lacking between musical logic and formalised logic, in terms of their ontological foundations and symbolical calculations. Thus, my purpose is to focus on the questions linked to the separation of a blind formal calculus from its possible interpretations, as they engage our present queries about meaning. I shall first present the specific point of view of an historian of science, a very different matter from our present knowledge of logic. Then, I shall define the periods I have chosen to show how these questions were dealt with historically. I shall go on to analyse how the relationship of logical calculus to the question of its meaning was viewed during these different periods.