Preface

An obvious excuse for the project that resulted in the present collection of papers is provided by the dedication: J. Michael Dunn turns 75 years old in 2016. This book celebrates his research and his career as a logician, which already spans more than half a century. Another obvious rationale for this book is that we are aware, more than ever before, of the importance and pervasiveness of information. It is a truism that we live in an information age. The developments in computer technology in the past 20–30 years—including increased storage, transmission, and search capabilities— undoubtedly contribute to our perception of the ubiquity of information. A way to use information is to reason with it. Remarkably, J. M. Dunn was thinking about logic in terms of information well before everybody jumped onto the (i-)bandwagon wheeling along the information superhighway. The papers in this volume evidence that treating logic as an organon for manipulating information is a fruitful approach. An opportunity to assemble this volume arose because Springer established a new book series. The Outstanding Contributions to Logic series provides a different focal point for a collection of papers than some others do. Although the OCL volumes have the flavor of a Festschrift, they support greater flexibility and a narrower theme than what could be achieved by cataloging all the works of a famous logician. Logic, in general, should interest a wide range of people. The particular approach to logic that is exemplified by this volume will primarily appeal to readers who are involved with disciplines such as mathematics, computer science, the information sciences, and philosophy. Some of the papers include not only new research results, but draw a chronologically faithful picture of the development of certain ideas—these sources will be especially useful for historians of science and philosophers. A reflection on achievements (spanning several decades) motivated some authors to take stock of the accumulated results; such papers are excellent for reference purposes too. It is expected that the present book will be useful to scholars who are interested in the area that is somewhat vaguely called nonclassical logics. While the papers