The History of Mathematical Logic: in honour of Ivor Grattan–Guinness

logic, and in particular to his method of using a board and counters to sort out logical syllogisms, a method that he frequently taught to young children as a way of encouraging logical thinking. The next talk presented a selection of Dodgson’s mathematical problems and puzzles, given by Edward Wakeling, the editor of Lewis Carroll’s diaries in ten volumes. This was followed by Dodgson’s important work on voting, presented by Iain McLean (Oxford), in which Dodgson built on earlier work by Condorcet and Borda. A supporter of proportional representation, Dodgson used examples to show the deficiencies of various well-known methods of voting, such as first-past-the-post, and also discovered a fairer method of scheduling lawn tennis tournaments, prior to the introduction of seeding. To conclude the formal presentations, the Dodgson expert Francine Abeles (New York, USA) discussed Dodgson’s legacy by addressing the question of how good a mathematician he was, and Mark Richards (London) outlined the bibliographic collection that he is compiling of Dodgson’s mathematical writings. The meeting ended with a question-and-answer session involving all the speakers.