10th Annual NYU/Columbia Graduate Student Philosophy Conference

They are accepting papers until 12/31/09. Here is more information.

2010 Synthese Conference announcement (includes the list of invited speakers)

The 2010 Synthese Conference: announcement and call for papers

On April 15th and 16th of 2010, the Synthese Conference will take place at Columbia University. The 2010 edition of the Synthese Conference will focus on the theme of epistemology and economics. Recent years have seen an increasing amount of interaction between epistemology and economics: traditional topics in epistemology, such as the analysis of knowledge, have found a significant role in the study of interactive decision making, while traditional topics in economics, such as the analysis of rationality, now figure prominently into certain areas of epistemology. The conference program will feature the following invited speakers:

Alexandru Baltag (Oxford)

Adam Brandenburger (NYU)

Cristina Bicchieri (Penn)

Christian List (LSE)

Wlodek Rabinowicz (Lund)

The conference program will also include at least five contributed papers. Every paper that is presented at the conference will be considered for the special issue of Synthese that will be based on the conference theme of epistemology and economics. Submissions should be relevant to the conference theme, broadly construed, and should satisfy the usual guidelines for submissions to Synthese. Submissions for the contributed slots must be received no later than February 1, 2010. Notifications of acceptance will be made by February 20, 2010. All submissions should be sent to synthese.conference.2010@gmail.com .

The Synthese Editors-in-Chief: Johan van Benthem, Vincent F. Hendricks and John Symons

The Local Organizing Committee: John Collins, Haim Gaifman, Jeff Helzner and Philip Kitcher

A few announcements that may be of interest to philosophers in NYC

First, the following announcement comes from Rohit Parikh:

CONFERENCE ON EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSPHICAL THEMES

December 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th, 2009 – NYC

http://web.cs.gc.cuny.edu/~kgb/

"At one time, there was lively dialogue between Western and Eastern philosophy. Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and William James were strongly influenced by Eastern philosophy. But, during recent years, Western philosophy has shown much less respect for the East than previous and there seems less awareness that issues like epistemology, time, and selfhood have been addressed very intelligently in the East.

The purpose of the conference is to reinvigorate the dialog between Eastern and Western philosophy (philosophy as distinct from religion), and a galaxy of brilliant speakers from all over the globe have agreed to participate.

Registration is Free. Students who attend the conference may apply for (modest)

travel grants.

For online registration please visit http://web.cs.gc.cuny.edu/~kgb/registration.html"

**************************************************

Second, and I'm a little late in posting this, the 2010 Synthese Conference will take place at Columbia in April. Here is the announcement and CFP:

The 2010 Synthese Conference: announcement and call for papers

On April 15th and 16th of 2010, the Synthese Conference will take place at Columbia University. The 2010 edition of the Synthese Conference will focus on the theme of epistemology and economics. Recent years have seen an increasing amount of interaction between epistemology and economics: traditional topics in epistemology, such as the analysis of knowledge, have found a significant role in the study of interactive decision making, while traditional topics in economics, such as the analysis of rationality, now figure prominently into certain areas of epistemology. We anticipate that the conference program will include slots for five invited papers and at least five contributed papers. Every paper that is presented at the conference will be considered for the special issue of Synthese that will be based on the conference theme of epistemology and economics. The list of invited speakers is still being finalized. In the meantime, we encourage submissions for the contributed slots. Submissions should be relevant to the conference theme of epistemology and economics, broadly construed, and should satisfy the usual guidelines for submissions to Synthese.

Submissions for the contributed slots must be received no later than February 1, 2010. Notifications of acceptance will be made by February 20, 2010. All submissions should be sent to synthese.conference.2010@gmail.com .

The Synthese Editors-in-Chief: Johan van Benthem, Vincent F. Hendricks and John Symons

The Local Organizing Committee: John Collins, Haim Gaifman, Jeff Helzner and Philip Kitcher

**************************************************

Finally, and I'm also a bit late with this one, I'm very happy to report that Vincent Hendricks is now a regular visitor at Columbia.

Student Journal of Economics and Philosophy

From Leoni Linek:

"THE TRANSATLANTIC
Journal of Economics and Philosophy
www.thetransatlantic.org

A recent initiative by students at US and UK universities is launching a student publication in the field of Economics and Philosophy. The journal promotes an interdisciplinary approach and thus wishes to span the gulf between Economics and Philosophy. The Transatlantic will be produced and published in London and New York simultaneously and will be distributed at a variety of universities in both countries and beyond.

Topics will encompass a vast array of subjects, ranging from the ontology, epistemology and methodology of economics and the foundations of rational choice and game theory, to ethics and welfare economics, as well as the history of economic thought. While it is designed as a preprofessional platform for both undergraduate and graduate students, each edition will also feature guest articles by expert academics of the area. The Transatlantic serves as a global forum for those with an interest in the field.

The Transatlantic is now accepting submissions for the first issue on the topic "Economics & Science", which will be out by the beginning of 2010. We welcome contributions from young scholars from across the globe. One of the guest articles for this edition will be by Emanuel Derman, professor of Physics at Columbia University and former managing director at Goldman Sachs, who has written extensively on the relation of Physics and Finance.

If you would like to get involved, please e-mail us at info@thetransatlantic.org. This is a great way to gain experience in a variety of fields, ranging from marketing and managing to design, layout, reviewing and publishing. If you wish to write for the forthcoming issue, please send us an abstract of your article by November 16, 2009 to submit@thetransatlantic.org. The full article should be approximately 1000-1500 words and will be due in December 2009. We hope to hear from you.

The Transatlantic Team"

Seminar in Logic and Games at CUNY Graduate Center

From Rohit Parikh:

"Seminar in Logic and Games

CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue
Friday, October 2,
4:15 - 6:15 PM, room 4419

Adam Elga (Princeton University) and Agustin Rayo (MIT)

Title: "Fragmented belief states and logical omniscience"

Abstract: Is there an English word that ends in "MT"? (If you are stumped, think about it for a moment and then read the last word of thisabstract.) Before you figured out (or read) the answer to that question, did you know that the word that is the answer was an English word that ends in"MT"? In a sense, yes: the word was in your vocabulary. But in another sense, no: for a moment, you weren't able to answer the puzzle question. For finite agents, this phenomenon is unavoidable. We often possess a piece of information for some purposes (or with respect to some queries), but not for other purposes (or with respect to other queries). As a result, the state of mind of a finite agent should be represented not by a single batch of information, but rather by a function from "purposes" to batches of information. This representation makes clear what happens during "aha!" moments in reasoning. It helps illuminate what happens when philosophers or mathematicians jointly discuss a disputed question. And it leads to a solution of the problem of logical omniscience. In presenting this framework, the authors hope to convince you that it is more fruitful than you may have dreamt.

Background reading at: http://www.princeton.edu/~adame/cuny/ "

"Philosophical Duals" at Columbia

From Achille Varzi:

"I am delighted to announce the launching of a new series of events inour Department. Entitled "Philosophical Duals" [the oddness ofspelling is intentional], it will feature two faculty members addressing a common topic from their different philosophicalperspectives. The first event will take place on OCTOBER 8, 4:10-6:00, Philosophy Hall, Room 716, and will feature Professors LYDIA GOEHR and JOHN COLLINS. The topic will be GAMES AND GAME THEORY. The next event will be with Professors HAIM GAIFMAN and TAYLOR CARMAN on TRUTH AND "TRUTH" (date TBA)."

The latest issue of The Reasoner is available ...

here.

"Editorial - Gustavo Cevolani
Interview with Theo Kuipers - Gustavo Cevolani
Can Nature Make an Argument? - Leon Niemoczynski
Wavering about Logic - Hartley Slater
The Consilience of Complex Evidence - Susan Haack
The Relativity of the Identity of the Self - Joao Fonseca & Klaus Gartner
Controlled Natural Language, 8--10 June - Norbert E. Fuchs
Logica, 22--26 June - Igor Sedlar & Juraj Podrouzek
European Computing and Philosophy, 2--4 July - Gordana Dodig Crnkovic
Intelligent Computer Mathematics, 5--12 July - Lucas Dixon
The Metaphysics of Consciousness, 7--9 July - Pierfrancesco Basile, Jesper Kallestrup, Julian Kiverstein, Leemon McHenry & Pauline Phemister
Automated Reasoning about Context and Ontology Evolution, 11--12 July - Alan Bundy, Jos Lehmann, Guilin Qi & Ivan Jose Varzinczak
Logical Methods for Social Concepts, 20--24 July - Andreas Herzig & Emiliano Lorini
International Conference on Biomedical Ontology, 24--26 July - Albert GoldfainMeaning, Understanding and Knowledge, 7--9 August - Douglas Patterson
Responsible Belief in the Face of Disagreement, 18--20 August - Rik Peels
Logic and Rational Interaction - Rasmus K. Rendsvig
Intuitionism - Julien Murzi
Lewis Carroll - Amirouche Moktefi

The Reasoner (www.thereasoner.org) is a monthly digest highlighting excitingnew research on reasoning, inference and method broadly construed. It is interdisciplinary,covering research in, e.g., philosophy, logic, AI, statistics, cognitive science, law, psychology, mathematics and the sciences.

The Reasoner welcomes submissions:- Submitted articles (100-1000 words)- Submitted items of news- Letters- Conference announcements- Job announcements- Advertisements

Jon Williamson, Editor
Federica Russo, Features
EditorLorenzo Casini, News Editor"

Ian Hacking wins Holberg International Memorial Prize 2009

Here is the story. HT to Leiter Reports.

ESSLI 2010 website

The website for the 22ND EUROPEAN SUMMER SCHOOL OF LOGIC, LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION

ESSLLI 2010 / UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN / DENMARK / AUGUST 9-20, 2010 is now available at: http://esslli2010cph.info/

The Science of Decision Making on Science Friday

Guests include Michael J. Frank (Brown University), Jennifer S. Lerner (Harvard Kennedy School), and Colin Camerer (California Institute of Technology).

The program is from 7/24/09 and can be found here in the Science Friday archives.

The latest issue of The Reasoner is available ...

... here.


Here is what you will find in this issue:

"Editorial - Matteo Morganti
Interview with Wolfgang Spohn - Matteo Morganti
Book: Argumentation in Artificial Intelligence - Iyad Rahwan
Journal: Dialogue and Discourse - David Schlangen
Conditionals, 11 May - Matthias Unterhuber
Argument cultures, 3-6 June - Hans V. Hansen, Christopher W. Tindale, J. Anthony Blair &
Ralph H. Johnson
Aim of belief, 11-13 June - Timothy Chan
Arche Scepticism Conference, 13-14 June - Dylan Dodd
Non-classical Mathematics, 18-22 June - Petr Cintula & Greg Restall
Consciousness and the Self, 25 June - Mary Leng and Stephen McLeod
Strategies-I, 26 June - Soumya Paul
Multiplicity and Unification in Statistics and Probability, 25-26 June - Sami Stouli
Knowledge Discovery from Uncertain Data, 28 June - Ming Hua
Two Streams in the Philosophy of Mathematics: Rival Conceptions of Mathematical Proof,
1-3 July - Brendan Larvor
European Epistemology Network, 4-5 July - Christoph Kelp
Beyond Classical Bayesian Estimation Theory, 6-9 July - Vesa Klumpp & Uwe D. Hanebeck
Converging Technologies, Changing Societies, 7-10 July - Katinka Waelbers
Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications, 14-18 July - Matthias Troffaes & Frank
Coolen
Logic and Rational Interaction - Olivier Roy
Chrysippus - Andrew Aberdein
Logical Foundations of Probability, Rudolf Carnap - Jan-Willem Romeijn


The Reasoner (www.thereasoner.org) is a monthly digest highlighting exciting
new research on reasoning, inference and method broadly construed. It is
interdisciplinary,
covering research in, e.g., philosophy, logic, AI, statistics, cognitive science,
law, psychology, mathematics and the sciences.

The Reasoner welcomes submissions:
- Submitted articles (100-1000 words)
- Submitted items of news
- Letters
- Conference announcements
- Job announcements
- Advertisements

Jon Williamson, Editor
Federica Russo, Features Editor
Lorenzo Casini, News Editor"

Progic 2009: 4th Workshop on Combining Probability and Logic

General information, including the program, can be found here.

ESSLLI 2010

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%
22nd European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information
ESSLLI 2010, 9-20 August, 2010, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%

CALL FOR COURSE and WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
The European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI) is organized every year by the Association for Logic, Language and Information (FoLLI, http://www.folli.org) in different sites around Europe. The main focus of ESSLLI is on the interface between linguistics, logic and computation. ESSLLI offers foundational, introductory and advanced courses, as well as workshops, covering a wide variety of topics within the three areas of interest: Language and Computation, Language and Logic, and Logic and Computation. Previous summer schools have been highly successful, attracting up to 500 students from Europe and elsewhere. The school has developed into an important meeting place and forum for discussion for students and researchers interested in the interdisciplinary study of Logic, Language and Information.

For more information, visit the FoLLI website, as well as ESSLLI’2009 website: http://esslli2009.labri.fr/.

The ESSLLI 2010 Program Committee invites proposals for foundational, introductory, and advanced courses, and for workshops for the 22nd annual Summer School on important topics of active research in the broad interdisciplinary area connecting logic, linguistics, computer science, and the cognitive sciences, structured within the 3 traditional ESSLLI streams:
- Language and Computation
- Language and Logic
- Logic and Computation
We also welcome proposals that do not exactly fit one of these categories.
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION: All proposals should be submitted, using a prescribed form that will be available soon on the ESSLLI 2010 website www.hum.ku.dk/esslli2010, through EasyChair on http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=esslli2010, not later than Monday, September 7, 2009.

Proposers must hold PhD or equivalent degrees and should follow the guidelines below while preparing their submissions; proposals that do not conform with these guidelines may not be considered.

GUIDELINES FOR COURSE AND WORKSHOP PROPOSALS:
ALL COURSES: Courses are given over one week (Monday-Friday) and consist of five 90 minutes sessions, one per day. Course proposals should give a brief overview of the topic and a tentative content and structure of the course, as well as state the course’s objectives and clearly specify prerequisites, if any. Lecturers who want to offer a long, two-week course, should submit two independent one-week courses (for example an introductory course in the first week of ESSLLI, and a more advanced course during the second). The ESSLLI program committee has the right to select only one of the two proposed courses.

TIMETABLE FOR COURSE PROPOSAL SUBMISSION:
Sep 7, 2009: Proposal Submission Deadline
Oct 19, 2009: Notification Deadline
Jun 30, 2010: Deadline for receipt of camera-ready course material by the ESSLLI’2010 local organizers

FOUNDATIONAL COURSES: These are strictly elementary courses not assuming any background knowledge. They are intended for people who wish to get acquainted with the problems and techniques of areas new to them. Ideally, they should allow researchers from other fields to acquire the key competencies of neighboring disciplines, thus encouraging the development of a truly interdisciplinary research community. Foundational courses should require no special prerequisites, but may presuppose some experience with scientific methods and general appreciation of the field of the course.

INTRODUCTORY COURSES: Introductory courses are central to the activities of the Summer School. They are intended to provide an introduction to the (interdisciplinary) field for students, young researchers, and other non-specialists, and to equip them with a good understanding of the course field's basic methods and techniques. Such courses should enable experienced researchers from other fields to acquire the key competencies of neighboring disciplines, thus encouraging the development of a truly interdisciplinary research community. Introductory courses in, for instance, Language and Computation, can build on some knowledge of the component fields; e.g., an introductory course in computational linguistics should address an audience which is familiar with the basics of linguistics and computation. Proposals for introductory courses should indicate the level of the course as compared to standard texts in the area (if any).

ADVANCED COURSES: Advanced courses should be pitched at an audience of advanced Masters or PhD students. Proposals for advanced courses should specify the prerequisites in detail.

WORKSHOPS: Workshops run over one week and consist of five 90-minutes sessions, one per day. The aim of the workshops is to provide a forum for advanced Ph.D. students and other researchers to present and discuss their work. Workshops should have a well defined theme, and workshop organizers should be specialists in the theme of the workshop. The proposals for workshops should justify the choice of topic, give an estimate of the number of attendants and expected submissions, and provide a list of at least 15 potential submitters working in the field of the workshop. The organizers are required to give a general introduction to the theme during the first session of the workshop. They are also responsible for the organization and program of the workshop including inviting the submission of papers, reviewing, expenses of invited speakers, etc. In particular, each workshop organizer will be responsible for sending out a Call for Papers for the workshop and to organize the selection of the submissions by the deadlines specified below. The call for workshop submissions must make it clear that the workshop is open to all members of the ESSLLI community and should indicate that all workshop contributors must register for the Summer School.

TIMETABLE FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS:
Sep 7, 2009: Proposal Submission Deadline
Oct 19, 2009: Notification Deadline
Nov 02, 2009: Deadline for submission of the Calls for Papers to ESSLLI’2010 PC chair
Nov 09, 2009: Workshop organizers send out First Call for Papers
Jan 25, 2010: Workshop organizers send out Second Call for Papers
Mar 08, 2010: Workshop organizers send out Third Call for Papers
Apr 12, 2010: Suggested deadline for submissions to the workshops
May 24, 2010: Suggested deadline for notification of workshop contributors
Jun 30, 2010: Deadline for submission of camera-ready copy of workshop proceedings to the ESSLLI’2010 Local Organizers.
Notice that workshop speakers will be required to register for the Summer School; however, they will be able to register at a reduced rate to be determined by the Local Organizers.
FORMAT FOR PROPOSALS: A form for submitting course and workshop proposals will be available soon on the ESSLLI 2010 website www.hum.ku.dk/esslli2010.
The proposers are required to submit the following information:
* Name(s) of proposing lecturer(s)/ workshop organizer(s), at most two per course or workshop
* Contact addresses, homepages, phones, and fax numbers (if available), of proposing lecturer(s)/ workshop organizer(s);
* Title of proposed course/workshop;
* Type (workshop, foundational, introductory, or advanced course)
* Stream (one of: Language & Computation, Language & Logic, Logic & Computation)
* Description (in at most 300 words, provide justification, relevance to ESSLLI, proposed contents and structure of the courses, resp. expected participation in the workshops)
* External funding (whether the proposers will be able to obtain external funding for travel and accommodation expenses)
* Further particulars (any further information that is required by the above guidelines should be included here; in particular, course objectives and prerequisites, as well as the lecturers teaching experience relevant to the proposed course, and generally in the interdisciplinary field scope of ESSLLI.)
FINANCIAL ASPECTS: Prospective lecturers and workshop organizers should be aware that all teaching and organizing at the summer schools is done on a voluntary basis in order to keep the participants fees as low as possible. Lecturers and organizers are not paid for their contribution, but are reimbursed for travel and accommodation (up to fixed maximum amounts, that will be communicated to the lecturers upon notification). It should be stressed that while proposals from all over the world are welcomed, the School cannot guarantee full reimbursement of travel costs, especially from destinations outside Europe. Please note that in case a course or workshop is to be taught/organized by two lecturers, a lump sum will be reimbursed to cover travel and accommodation expenses for one lecturer; the splitting of that sum is up to the lecturers.
The local organizers would highly appreciate it if, whenever possible, lecturers and workshop organizers find alternative funding to cover travel and accommodation expenses, as that would help us keep the cost of attending ESSLLI’2010 lower.

ESSLLI 2010 PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
Chair: Valentin Goranko (Technical Univ. of Denmark)
Area Specialists:
Language and Computation:
Walter Daelemans (Univ. of Antwerp)
Sabine Schulte im Walde (Univ. of Stuttgart)
Language and Logic:
Yoad Winter (Utrecht Univ.)
Raffaella Bernardi (Free Univ. of Bozen-Bolzano)
Logic and Computation:
Anuj Dawar (Univ. of Cambridge)
Ken Shan (State Univ. of New Jersey, Rutgers)
ESSLLI 2010 Program Committee dedicated email account: esslli2010@gmail.com
ESSLLI 2010 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
Chair: Vincent Hendricks (University of Copenhagen)
Organizing Manager: Rasmus Rendsvig
ESSLLI 2010 website: www.hum.ku.dk/esslli2010

The latest issue of The Reasoner is ...

... now freely available for download.

The electronic proceedings for ISIPTA 09 are now available

The conference isn't until next month, but the proceedings are already available online. The preliminary program has also been posted. There will be special sessions in memory of Henry Kyburg and Pauline Coolen-Schrijner, as well as some sessions for open discussion. It should be a great conference!

Philosophers in the National Academy of Sciences

According to this story from Leiter Reports, only nine philosophers have been elected to the NAS: Dewey, Gibbard, Kuhn, Ernest Nagel, Peirce, Popper, Quine, Skyrms, and Suppes.

Seeing the list was interesting. It includes some of my favorite philosophers.

That is all.

Rutgers Workshop on the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics

From Heather Demarest:

"May 13th and 14th, there will be a workshop on the foundations of statistical mechanics at Rutgers in the seminar room. The workshop will mostly focus on issues raised in David Albert's Time and Chance. Topics will range over the philosophical foundations of statistical mechanics, the nature of probability, the direction of time, experience and causal influence. Participants will include David Albert, Valia Allori, Craig Callender, Adam Elga, Mathias Frisch, Shelly Goldstein, Nick Huggett, Jenann Isamel, Doug Kutach, Chris Meacham, Alyssa Ney, Jill North, Sarah Scott, Michael Strevens, Brad Weslake, Eric Winsberg, and Nino Zanghi. If you would like to attend the workshop, or have any questions, please send me an email (heatherdemarest@gmail.com). The speakers will assume that the participants have read the papers, which can be found at the workshop website below:

http://fas-philosophy.rutgers.edu/hdemarest/StatMech.html

Hope to see many of you there, Heather."

Choice and Inference ...

is the new blog by Jake Chandler (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) and Jonah Schupbach (University of Pittsburgh). Here is brief description from C&I:

"Choice & Inference provides a platform for dialogue and news within the fields of formal epistemology and decision theory, broadly construed. Topics include (but are not limited to) uncertain and ampliative inference, coherence, paradoxes of belief and / or action, belief revision, disagreement and consensus, causal discovery, epistemology of religion, etc. And the formal tools used to pursue questions within these topics include (but are not limited to) game theory and decision theory, formal learning theory, probability theory and statistics, networks and graphs, and formal logic."

ISIPTA 09 -- 2nd call for poster contributions

Your help with circulating this announcement locally is much appreciated. Apologies for multiple postings

ISIPTA '09 - 2nd CALL FOR POSTER CONTRIBUTIONS

Poster abstract submission deadline extended to 20 May. IMPORTANT: To qualify for reduced conference costs (for PhD students, and participants from Africa and from former Soviet Union countries) you must register by *1 May*.

http://www.sipta.org/isipta09/students.html

From 14-18 July 2009, the 6th International Symposium on ImpreciseProbability: Theory and Applications will take place in Durham (UK), see:http://www.sipta.org/isipta09/. The deadline for full paper contributions has passed, and the reviewing process is under way. However, there is an exciting opportunity to participate at the conference by contributing a poster,which is particularly intended to open up the conference to a wider audience, and to communicate ideas about related research,applications and problems which are not yet at the stage that a fullpaper could be presented. For example, PhD students or researchers whoare relatively new to the topic field, or would just like to explore opportunities, are welcome to present posters outlining research questions and initial ideas, and practitioners may wish to present posters with the main goal to explore applications of imprecise probabilities to specific problems.If you wish to present a poster, please submit a one-page abstract ofthe work you intend to present, byDEADLINE: 20 May using the poster abstract submission page:

http://www.sipta.org/isipta09/submitabstract.html

Thomas Augustin, Frank Coolen, Serafin Moral, and Matthias TroffaesISIPTA '09 Program Committee Board

A correction to the SEP Modal Logic Article

I posted a correction to the SEP Modal Logic article at Certain Doubts yesterday. The current version of the SEP article mistakenly claims that knowing that a modal axiom schema is valid on some class of Kripke models is sufficient to uniquely determine the frame properties of that class of models. A short counter-example and explanation of the error is given under the above link.

In Memoriam: Ernest Adams

Here is the notice from Berkeley:

"The Philosophy Department was deeply saddened to learn that Emeritus Professor Ernest W. Adams died on March 29th, 2009, shortly after being diagnosed with an advanced case of liver cancer. Professor Adams joined the Department in 1956, following graduate studies in philosophy at Stanford University (where his dissertation was supervised by Prof. Patrick Suppes); he continued teaching at Berkeley until his retirement in 1991. Prof. Adams worked in philosophical logic and the philosophy of science, and was best known for his research on conditionals; his influential book The Logic of Conditionals appeared in 1975. Professor Adams also made important contributions in a number of other areas, including the foundations of geometry and physics, as well as utility theory, game theory, and general measurement theory. A volume of essays in honor of his work, Probability and Conditionals, was published in 1994. At Berkeley Prof. Adams was a founding member of the Group in Logic and Methodology of Science. A memorial symposium is scheduled for Friday, April 24, from 1:00–5:00 p.m. in Evans Hall on the Berkeley campus; details will be announced later on our website. "

Vincent Hendricks is moving ...

"Vincent F. Hendricks is taking up a position as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Philosophy, August 1, 2009. Professor Hendricks is Editor-in-Chief of Synthese and received both the Elite Research Prize from the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Roskilde Festival Elite Research Prize in 2008. He was previously Professor of Formal Philosophy at Roskilde University, Denmark."

Recent Developments in Formal Epistemology: RSL

The Review of Symbolic Logic has just published on line a special issue devoted to recent developments in formal epistemology. The issue contains the following papers:

Horacio Arló-Costa: FORMAL EPISTEMOLOGY, CONTEXT AND CONTENT: INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE ON RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FORMAL EPISTEMOLOGY
Niel Tennant: BELIEF-REVISION, THE RAMSEY TEST, MONOTONICITY, AND THE SO-CALLED IMPOSSIBILITY RESULTS
Jeff Helzner:EXPECTED CONTENT
Haim Gaifman: CONTEXTUAL LOGIC WITH MODALITIES FOR TIME AND SPACE
Rohit Parikh: SENTENCES, BELIEF AND LOGICAL OMNISCIENCE, OR WHAT DOES DEDUCTION TELL US?
Sergei Artemov: THE LOGIC OF JUSTIFICATION
Giacomo Sillari: QUANTIFIED LOGIC OF AWARENESS AND IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE WORLDS
Joseph Halpern: INTRANSITIVITY AND VAGUENESS

The articles deal with a variety of topics from the logic of context and content, to the problem of logical omniscience, to belief revision, to the logic of justification, to formal models of vagueness. I assume that the printed version will be available soon.

Festival of Math: March 10-11 at the Italian Academy

From The Italian Academy, Columbia University and The Italian Cultural Institute of New York:

"The Festival della Matematica, Rome presents

MATH FESTIVAL: "Mathematical Creations and Recreations"New York, March 10-11, 2009

The Italian Academy, Columbia University The Italian Cultural Institute of New YorkTuesday, March 10th

11 a.m. at the Italian Academy"The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics"Lecture by the Nobel Laureate in Physics Sheldon Glashow

2.00 p.m. at the Italian Academy"The (mis)behaviour of financial markets"Lecture by Benoit Mandelbrot

5.00 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Institute Press conference 6.00 p.m. at the Italian Cultural Institute"Imaginary interview with Galileo Galilei"Reading by Claudio Bartocci and Piergiorgio Odifreddi (RSVP for this event: 212 879-4242, ext. 364)

Wednesday, March 11th

9.00 a.m. at the Italian Academy "Statistical thinking is hard, causal thinking is easy" Lecture by the Nobel Laureate for Economics Daniel Kahneman

11.00 a.m. at the Italian Academy "The early days of game theory in Princeton "Lecture-interview withthe Nobel Laureate for Economics John Nash and Harold Kuhn (coordinated by Piergiorgio Odifreddi)

2.00 p.m. at the Italian Academy"The elegant mathematical universe"Lecture-interview with Brian Greene(coordinated by Piergiorgio Odifreddi)

6.00 p.m. at the Italian Cultural InstituteFilm screening "Flatland. A journey of many dimensions"The movie edition Director Jeffrey Travis, animator Dano Johnson Edwin A. Abbott with Thomas Banchoff and the Filmmakers of Flatland With commentary by Thomas Banchoff and Achille Varzi(RSVP for this event: 212 879-4242, ext. 364)

Events at the Italian Academy offer first-come, first-served seating.

Events at the Cultural Institute, except for the press conference, require an RSVP.

2 locations in New York, March 10-11:Italian Academy Columbia University 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (just south of 118th Street) Italian Cultural Institute 686 Park Avenue, NYC (just south of 69th Street)"

WORKSHOP ON UNCERTAINTY PROCESSING, WUPES 09

From Radim Jirousek (via the SIPTA-MEMBERS mailing list):

"WORKSHOP ON UNCERTAINTY PROCESSING

WUPES 09will be held in castle Liblice, September 19-23. All the necessary information can be found at http://wupes.fm.vse.cz/ (some its pieces, as e.g. the amount of a conference fee, are only preliminary, however, because we are still trying to obtain a financial support to be able to keep the fee as low as possible). We want to ask you, who are considering to participate at this event, to preliminarily register as soon as possible (definitely not later then April 30) because we have to sign a contract with the castle specifying the number of participants. Looking forward to meeting you in Liblice, radim jirousek (on behalf of Organizing Committee)."

NYU-COLUMBIA Grad Conference

From Erica Shumener:

"Just a reminder that the NYU-Columbia grad conference is on this Saturday, and it will be GREAT! Here's the schedule. We hope to see you there!

Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at NYU5 Washington Place, Room 101 (Ground Floor)

Breakfast 9:30-10:00am

"Modality: Norms and Naturalism" Sean Aas, Brown University Commentator: Jeff Russell, NYU10:00-11:15am

"The Concept of Belief and Epistemic Rationality" Ivy Tsoi, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeCommentator: Brian Kim, Columbia 11:30am-12:45pm

Lunch 12:45-2:00pm

"New Dynamics for Epistemic Modality" Malte Willer, University of Texas-Austin Commentator: Katrina Przyjemski, NYU2:00-3:15pm

"Why Do the Numbers Count?" Tom Dougherty, MIT Commentator: Michael Seifried, Columbia 3:30-4:45pm

Keynote Speaker: Karen Bennett (Cornell)"Putting Things Together" 5:00-7:00pm

10:00 Party!"

Summer School in Mathematical Logic at UCLA

From Itay Neeman: The UCLA Logic Center is organizing a summer school for undergraduates this July. The goal of the school is to introduce future mathematicians to methods and central results from mathematical logic. Courses are _very_ intensive, designed to assume little if any prior experience with logic, yet reach highly advanced material within three weeks.

I'm writing to ask for your help advertising the school and attracting extra bright undergraduates. Please encourage any suitable students that you know to apply. The recently created summer school webpage (including application form) is at

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~ineeman/Summer-2009/

There is also a flyer at

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~ineeman/Summer-2009/flyer.pdf

which you may post and forward to the undergraduate counselors in your department.

Ph.D. SCHOLARSHIP IN LOGIC offered jointly by the Department of Artificial Intelligence and the Department of Philosophy

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS

Call for Applications: We invite applications for a fully-funded 4 year bursary position for a Ph.D. student at the University of Groningen. The scholarship is offered jointly by the Department of Artificial Intelligence and the Department of Philosophy. Applicants must submit a research proposal for the intended PhD research covering the four-year duration of the scholarship. The application for the scholarship should be made no later than 1 May 2009.

Qualifications: Candidates should have (or obtain before 1 September 2009) a Masters degree in Logic, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy, Mathematics or Physics.

Job Profile: We are looking for candidates with a strong interest in Logic (especially in areas such as Modal Logic, Epistemic Logic, Dynamic Logic, Belief Revision theory, Game Logic, Quantum Logic, Linear Logic,
Conditionals or Game Semantics) and its applications to modelling information flow, learning, agency, interaction and rationality in Artificial Intelligence, Theoretical Philosophy, Computer Science, Quantum Physics (including Quantum Information and Quantum Computation) or Game Theory. Fluent English is a prerequisite.

Appointment: The net monthly salary (after tax) for this position is approximately 1500 euro. The scholarship is awarded for a period of four years and should lead to a dissertation. The successful applicant is required to participate in the PhD programme at the University of Groningen (see http://www.rug.nl/prospectivestudents/degreeprogrammes/ graduateschools/phd) and will be working under the daily supervision of Dr. S. Smets.

How to apply: Applications must be sent by standard mail and should arrive by 1 May 2009. Applications must contain :

- a Curriculum Vitae
- a 3-5 page long Research Proposal
- a Letter of Motivation (at most 1 page), explaining why you are interested in this position
- a list of university courses taken (including grades).
- the name and contact details (including email address) of one referee who can provide details about your profile (e.g. the supervisor of your master thesis).

Please send the application to :

Dr. Sonja Smets
University of Groningen,
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Department of Artificial Intelligence
P.O. Box 407
9700 AK Groningen
The Netherlands

For further information, please contact Dr Sonja Smets at S.J.L.Smets@rug.nl

Shortlisted candidates will be notified within 4 weeks after the deadline.

CFP for Second Formal Epistemology Festival: Causal Decision Theory and Scoring Rules

Second Formal Epistemology Festival:
Causal Decision Theory and Scoring Rules
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
May 29-31, 2009

This is the second of three small, thematically focused events in formal epistemology, organized by Franz Huber (Konstanz), Eric Swanson (Michigan), and Jonathan Weisberg (Toronto). This year's festivities coincide with the 10th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's The Foundations of Causal Decision Theory. Confirmed participants include John Collins, Branden Fitelson, Allan Gibbard, Chris Hitchcock, James Joyce, Sarah Moss, and the organizers.

We welcome submissions of papers on topics related to causal decision theory, scoring rules, or both. Please send a pdf prepared for blind reviewing to ericsw@umich.edu.

Some funding for travel expenses may become available. Click here for a printable call for papers. For more information, see http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ericsw/2fef .

Deadline for submissions: March 22, 2009.
Notification of acceptances: April 5, 2009.

Some upcoming conferences on uncertainty

Philosophy of Probability II: Graduate Conference,Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science,London School of Economics, 8-9 June.

Foundations of Uncertainty: Probability and Its RivalsSeptember, Villa Lanna, Prague, Czech Republic, 1-4 September.

Progic: 4th Workshop on Combining Probability andLogic, special focus: new approaches to rationality indecision making, Groningen, The Netherlands, 17-18 September.

HT to The Reasoner!