Thomas Anderson Goudge and the introduction of symbolic logic at the University of Toronto

Abstract

Thomas Anderson Goudge was the first member of the philosophy department faculty to teach a course in modern mathematical logic at the University of Toronto. We provide here a brief discussion of the origin of Goudge's interest in logic and of how he came to introduce symbolic logic courses into the philosophy department curriculum at the University of Toronto. Much of the information presented here is based upon John G. Slater's three-page essay "Thomas Anderson Goudge" prefacing the Thoemmes Antiquarian Books' catalogue #68, "Books from the Working Library of Professor Thomas A. Goudge". We also provide a brief sample of the titles in logic that formed part of Goudge's working library.