World Logic Day

The date chosen to celebrate World Logic Day, 14 January, corresponds to the date of death of Kurt Gödel and the date of birth of Alfred Tarski, two of the most prominent logicians of the twentieth century.[2]

The proclamation of World Logic Day was proposed to the UNESCO Executive Board in the summer of 2019. It was discussed and adopted at the 207th session of the UNESCO Executive Board in October 2019[3] and proposed to the 40th General Conference of UNESCO. On 26 November 2019, the 40th General Conference proclaimed 14 January to be World Logic Day, coordinated by CIPSH.[4]

The Logica Universalis Association, an informal meta-association promoting logic[5] closely linked to Jean-Yves Béziau, promoted the celebration of World Logic Day 2019 by encouraging logicians worldwide to organise independent events on 14 January 2019. Approximately sixty such events were organised in 33 different countries.[6] The success of this informal first World Logic Day formed part of the deliberations of the 40th UNESCO General Conference in November 2019 which led to the formal proclamation by UNESCO.

On the first World Logic Day after the UNESCO proclamation, the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, issued a statement highlighting the importance of logic:[7]

In the twenty-first century – indeed, now more than ever – the discipline of logic is a particularly timely one, utterly vital to our societies and economies. Computer science and information and communications technology, for example, are rooted in logical and algorithmic reasoning.

World Logic Day 2020 was celebrated by approximately sixty events in 35 countries.[8]