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Category talk:Logic

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Mathematics

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See Talk:Logic#Mathematics.

Should we have Category:Formal logic?

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Note the prior discussion on Category talk:Formal logic

User:Isaac_Rabinovitch and myself are involved in a dispute over whether we should have a Category:Formal logic, following my failed attempt to put it up for Categories for Deletion. I'll put my argument here; Isaac will, I assume, follow shortly.

The problems with the category are:

  1. Logic is an integral whole, where topics in formal and informal logic closely mirror each other, and it helps navigation to see similar topics side by side;
  2. Many topics in logic do not neatly divide into formal and informal, but instead treat the two side-by-side. If we have a subcategory formal logic, should these mixed topics go in or not? Since it is not a clean criterion for division we are best not using it for breaking up the logic category;
  3. As far as possible subcategories should be orthogonal to each other. Formal logic cuts across many subcategories (eg. Category:Modal logic, Category:Paradoxes, and Category:Philosophical logic) raising more issues of classification that will not be obvious to the user;
  4. Since the category does not help classification, it's main effect would be to add degrees of remoteness between related subjects.

Hence I think we would be better off without such a category. --- Charles Stewart 18:42, 20 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

  • Suprise suprise, I've come around to Charles's POV. I don't agree with all his arguments (in particular, I don't accept any of the argument in his CfD nomination). I even disagree with a lot of what he says on this page. But he raises one big point here I can't rebut: it's too hard to come up with a useful category subtree that cleanly separates formalistic topics from the rest of them. So for that reason alone, I'm accepting the demise of Category:Formal logic. Resubmit the CfD (be sure to reference this page), and I'll support it this time. ----Isaac R 19:08, 20 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Oh my, we have consensus. I've resubmitted the page on Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2005 May 20#Category:Formal logic --- Charles Stewart 19:40, 20 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think a bunch of articles in Category:Logic (but not all of them) belong rather in Category:Mathematical logic. I tried to move some of them, but ran out of breadth. Any help would be appreciated. Oleg Alexandrov 02:03, 3 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]