Title: Why the History of Logic [and Philosophy!] Should Matter to Modern Logicians [and Philosophers!]

Abstract: The starting point of this talk is the present-day state of logic, a field which is ever expanding and becoming more inclusive and yet which still presents systemic barriers of access to certain groups of people.  As logicians [and philosophers!] we think there is value in the study and practice of logic [and philosophy!], so patterns of exclusion should concern us, in two ways:

1. Where did these exclusionary structures come from?
2. What can we do to get rid of them?

A lot of work has been done in philosophy on the latter question, as witnessed by important work done in canon-revision.  But the former question is much less often discussed, and yet, in the context of logic at least, is crucially important to understanding where we are today and how we got here: How logic, or the lack thereof, is the tool by which exclusion and inclusion can be and has been performed.  Only by looking at historical answers to “who gets to have access to logic and why” can we fully understand where we are at today.