Mikhail Smirnov's Presentation at the International Congress of Logic "UNILOG-8" (Cusco, Peru)

On December 9, research fellow of the IL LLFP Mikhail Smirnov delivered a presentation at the international congress of logic UNILOG-8, held in the city of Cusco, Peru. The presentation on the topic "Frege as a Cartesian" took place as part of the workshop "Frege and Beyond," dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Gottlob Frege's death.

UNILOG is one of the largest international scientific events in the field of logic, held every three years in various locations around the world. In 2025, the event was held for the eighth time. It took place in a special location – the city of Cusco, which was the capital of the Inca Empire. The host organization was the National University of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cusco (UNSAAC). UNILOG featured a school (a series of lectures by leading experts on current topics in various areas of logic) and a congress (a series of plenary talks and workshops, as well as presentations as part of a research paper competition).

The main theme of UNILOG is the project of universal logic, which can be understood in different ways. In a narrow sense, it is the project of studying meta-properties of logical systems, developed by J.-Y. Béziau, with an earlier foundation based on the approach of A. Tarski. In a broad sense, the universal logic project can be understood as an affirmation of interest in various logics, diverse logical-mathematical and logical-philosophical topics, building unity on the basis of diversity, including national diversity (it is emphasized that representatives from many countries participate in the event).

Abstract of Mikhail Smirnov's Presentation

The possibility to view Frege as a Cartesian philosopher almost was not discussed to date. In my opinion, it is a quite plausible way of understanding Frege’s logico-philosophical position. I regard the following important theses as shared by Descartes and Frege:
(T1) The reality can be adequately grasped by the intellect.
(T2) There’s only one proper way to approach the reality.
(T3) There’s the common (standard of) intelligence, the conceptual and methodological invariant of correct thought, grasping anything that is objectively true and throwing away subjective aberrations.
In the talk, I'll substantiate this understanding and show how it helps to shed additional light on some aspects of Frege’s heritage. In particular, to give an interpretation to his assertion that thoughts are not created but revealed by humans (which is usually interpreted as Platonic).