Scenes from the ‘A farewell to Graham Priest’ event held on May 18, 2026.

The Logic and Metaphysics Workshop will meet on May 18th from 2:00-4:00 in-person at the Graduate Center (Room 9205) for a special farewell event for Graham Priest (CUNY). Reflections on Priest’s work will be given by Bradley Armour-Garb (Albany), Hartry Field (NYU), Achille Varzi (Columbia), and Yale Weiss (CUNY).

The Logic and Metaphysics Workshop will meet on May 11th from 2:00-4:00 in-person at the Graduate Center (Room 9205) for a talk by Mircea Dumitru (Bucharest).

Title: On the Normativity of Logic and Ethics

Abstract: The talk focuses on the normativity of logic, and how this relates to debates about logical exceptionalism and anti-exceptionalism, by comparing logical and ethical normativity within the broader landscape of modal concepts. I distinguish three irreducible kinds of necessity: metaphysical necessity – grounded in the nature of reality; natural necessity – grounded in laws of nature; normative necessity – grounded in norms, obligations, or what ought to be. The presentation surveys the philosophical debate about the normativity and methodology of logic: (i) logic’s traditional exceptional status rests on its normative authority and universality; (ii) anti-exceptionalists, by contrast, treat logical theory formation as fallible, abductive, and revisable, aligned with scientific practice; (iii) the contemporary challenge is to reconcile logic’s normative role with a non-exceptionalist, abductive methodology—a question I tackle from an exceptionalist standpoint. I side (with some reservations) with Exceptionalism in both logic and ethics, aligning with Derek Parfit’s objectivist view of morality and endorsing the robustness and irreducible character of normative necessity.