Philosophy, Science, and Method

Schedule and Abstracts for Progic 2011 ...

2011-09-07T00:52:00.003-04:00

The Progic conference will take place at Columbia University on September 10th and 11th. A detailed schedule, abstracts, and map of Columbia campus can be found at the conference page.

Progic 2011 on September 10th and 11th at Columbia University

2011-09-02T10:14:00.004-04:00

The Progic conference series is intended to promote interactions between probability and logic. The fifth installment of the series will be held at Columbia University in New York on September 10th and 11th of 2011. While several of the earlier Progic meetings included a special focus, Progic 2011 will honor Haim Gaifman's contributions to the intersection of probability and logic. Progic 2011 will consist of 11 talks, including invited talks by the following:

Haim Gaifman (Columbia)
Rohit Parikh (CUNY)
Jeff Paris (Manchester)
Dana Scott (Carnegie Mellon)

Progic 2011 will also include a memorial session to honor Horacio Arlo-Costa (Carnegie Mellon) who was scheduled to speak at the conference but passed away on July 14, 2011.

Here is the schedule:

Saturday, September 10^th – in 602 Hamilton Hall

Morning session

9:45-10:00 Opening remarks

10:00-11:00 Mixing modality and probability (yet again)

Dana Scott (Carnegie Mellon)

11:00-11:20 Q&A

10 min break

11:30-12:00 From Bayesian epistemology to inductive logic

Jon Williamson (Kent)

12:00-12:10 Q&A

5 min break

12:15-12:45 Ultralarge lotteries: dissolving the lottery paradox using non-standard analysis

Sylvia Wenmackers (Groningen)

12:45-12:55 Q&A

Lunch

Afternoon session

2:25-3:25 T.b.a.

Rohit Parikh (CUNY Graduate Center)

3:25-3:45 Q&A

5 min break

3:50-4:20 Coherence based probability logic: philosophical and psychological applications

Niki Pfeifer (Munich)

4:20-4:30 Q&A

20 min break

4:50-5:20 Matryoshka epistemology: the role of cores in belief and decision

Paul Pedersen (Carnegie Mellon)

5:20-5:30 Q&A

5:30 – 6:30 Memorial for Horacio Arlo Costa

Sunday, September 11^th – in 403 IAB

Morning session

10:25-10:30 Opening announcements

10:30-11:30 Pure inductive logic

Jeff Paris (Manchester)

11:30-11:50 Q&A

10 min break

12:00-12:30 Probabilities on sentences in an expressive logic

M. Hutter (ANU), J. Lloyd (ANU), K. Ng (ANU), and W. Uther (National ICT)

12:30-12:40 Q&A

Lunch

Afternoon session

2:10-2:40 Confirmation as partial entailment: a representation theorem in inductive logic

Vincenzo Crupi (Munich) and Katya Tentori (Trento)

2:40-2:50 Q&A

5 min break

2:55-3:25 On a priori and a posteriori reasoning

Anubav Vasudevan (Chicago)

3:25-3:35 Q&A

10 min break

3:45-4:45 T.b.a.

Haim Gaifman (Columbia)

4:45-5:05 Q&A

5:05-5:15 Closing remarks

LORI-III: 2nd CALL FOR PAPERS

2011-04-29T11:22:00.000-04:00

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

2nd CALL FOR PAPERS

THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL
WORKSHOP ON LOGIC, RATIONALITY AND INTERACTION (LORI-III)

Guangzhou, China, October 10-13, 2011

URL: http://www.golori.org/lori2011/

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

LORI-III

THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON LOGIC, RATIONALITY AND INTERACTION
October 10 - 13, 2011
Institute of Logic & Cognition, Sun Yat-sen University
Guangzhou, China

We invite submissions of contributed paper bearing on any of the broad themes of the LORI workshop series, including knowledge acquisition, use, and management, information exchange, rational action, and rational interaction. Specific topics of interest include but are not limited to:

* semantic models for knowledge, for belief, and for uncertainty
* dynamic logics of knowledge, information flow, and action
* logical analysis of the structure of games
* belief revision, belief merging
* logics and preferences, compact preference representation
* logics of intentions, plans, and goals
* logics of probability and uncertainty
* logical approaches to decision making and planning
* argument systems and their role in interaction
* norms, normative interaction, and normative multiagent systems
* logical and computational approaches to social choice

Papers can be submitted on the Easychair site for the conference and should be no longer than 4,000 words (approximately 12 double spaced pages). Submissions may but need not be prepared with LNCS Proceedings Style, although final versions of accepted submissions *must* be prepared with LNCS proceedings style.

PUBLICATION INFORMATION

A LNCS Proceedings Volume containing all accepted papers will be available at the workshop. Authors of selected papers will be invited after the conference to submit to a special issue of the journal Knowledge, Rationality and Action.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

See the conference website or go directly to the Easychair submission page:

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=lori3

***************************************************************************
Tentative dates

Submission Deadline: June 1, 2011
Notification: June 25, 2011
Final version due: July 15, 2011
Conference: October 10 - 13, 2011

Progic 2011 at Columbia

2011-01-04T15:02:00.002-05:00

Realism, Reference, and Rationality

2010-12-21T00:06:00.002-05:00

Call for Papers

The graduate students of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University invite submissions to

The 13th Annual Pitt-CMU Graduate Student Philosophy Conference

This year we encourage papers focused especially on the topics of

Realism, Reference, and Rationality

This is a reminder that our submission deadline for the 13th Annual Pitt/CMU Graduate Philosophy Conference has been extended to January 1, 2011. The conference will take place March 18-19, 2011, with Arthur Fine (University of Washington) as our keynote speaker.

Submissions from all areas of philosophy are welcome. Papers should be no more than 4500 words and should be prepared for blind review. The paper must contain no identifying information and must include at the top an abstract of no more than 250 words. Papers should be submitted on EasyChair.

Further information may be found at

www.pitt.edu/~philgrad

Inquiries may be sent to PittCMUConference@gmail.com.

We look forward to your submissions.

The Organizing Committee

EPISTEME@CMU Call for papers

2010-11-17T22:13:00.002-05:00

The 2011 EPISTEME conference will focus on the intersection of formal and social epistemology. The use of formal models in social epistemology is not a new development. Many philosophers have modeled concepts and ideas in social epistemology by using formal tools of various types (e.g., game theory, Bayesian decision theory, the theory of judgment aggregation, the recently developed theory of networks, multi-agent epistemic logic, social choice theory, etc.). This conference intends to explore the many fertile relations between various branches of formal epistemology and many sub-areas of contemporary social epistemology.

The 2011 EPISTEME conference will be hosted by the Center for Formal Epistemology in the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. The topic of the conference is:

"Social Epistemology meets Formal Epistemology: Recent developments and new trends"

A selection of the conference papers, including, potentially, papers from the open sessions, will be published in a special issue of the journal Episteme. For more information about the journal, look here.

Date: 24-26 June 2011

Possible topics: The following is a non-exhaustive list of possible questions that open session papers might address.

Epistemic foundations of game theory.

Peer disagreement.

Aumann’s `Agreeing to disagree’.

The modeling of testimony in Bayesian epistemology.

Discrete pooling, judgment aggregation and social choice.

Consensus of probabilities: limit theorems and applications.

Dynamic logic meets game theory.

Evolutionary game theory, morality and the social contract.

The program of social software.

Sociology of science.

Diversity and pluralism.

Social network structure.

Learning in networks.

Economic models of theory choice.

There will be a number of open sessions as part of this conference, and the organizers would like to invite submissions. Papers addressing any aspect of the conference theme, broadly conceived, are welcome. Submissions from graduate students are also welcome.

Length and format: Submissions should take the form of a detailed abstract of 500-1000 words. All submissions must be made electronically. The papers should be suitable for a presentation of around 30 minutes with a 15 minute question-and-answer session.

Submission procedure and important dates: All submissions should be sent directly to Horacio Arló-Costa (hcosta@andrew.cmu.edu). The deadline for submissions is February 15th 2011 with authors notified of the results of this process by April 20th 2011. All enquiries about the call for papers should be addressed to the main organizers: Horacio Arló-Costa (hcosta@andrew.cmu.edu ) and Christian List (C.List@lse.ac.uk).

Journal special issue: Please note that there will be a special issue of the journal Episteme arising out of this conference, and this issue may include some of the papers from the open sessions. It is thus essential that the papers for the open sessions are not already published, or due to be published. To be eligible for consideration for inclusion in the special issue, complete written versions of the papers will have to be ready by the time of the conference.

Main organizers:

Horacio Arló-Costa (CMU)
Christian List (LSE)

Program committee:

Alexandru Baltag (Oxford)
David Danks (CMU)
Igor Douven (Groningen)
Philip Kitcher (Columbia)
Klaus Nehring (UC Davis)
Eric Pacuit (Maryland and Tilburg)
Rohit Parikh (CUNY)
Gerhard Schurz (Dusseldorf)
Teddy Seidenfeld (CMU)
Brian Skyrms (CI)
Kai Spiekermann (LSE)
Johan van Benthem (Stanford, Amsterdam)
Kevin Zollman (CMU)

Local organizers:

Horacio Arló-Costa
Kevin Kelly

Workshop@CMU: Experience, heuristics, and choice: Prospects for bounded rationality

2010-11-07T16:09:00.001-05:00

On December 1st there will be a workshop at CMU focusing on bounded rationality especially as applied to choice, featuring various central issues like the role of heuristics in choice and inference. The program, and other details can be found here. No registration is needed and attendance is welcomed. For details about organization you can contact me at my CMU email address. The workshop celebrates the work of Herb Simon in this area and features Ralph Hertwig as one of the main invitees. Ralph has made decisive contributions to bounded rationality in a series of recent papers. He is a student and a frequent collaborator of Gerd Gigerenzer.

Postdoctoral position in linguistics and formal epistemology @ CMU

2010-10-09T00:31:00.001-04:00

Carnegie Mellon University, with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is pleased to accept applications for two A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities for the 2011-2013 academic years. These fellowships are designed to foster the academic careers of scholars who have recently received their Ph.D. degrees by permitting them to pursue their research while gaining mentored experience as teachers and members of one of Carnegie Mellon’s four humanities departments (English, History, Modern Languages, and Philosophy) in which they will be housed.

The Department of Philosophy seeks candidates whose research focuses on semantics or pragmatics of natural languages from the perspective of linguistics, philosophy, logic or computer science. Candidates whose work is of relevance to the research directions of the department’s Center for Formal Epistemology are particularly encouraged to apply. Information about the Center can be found at: http://www.formalepistemology.org

Terms of appointment
Fellows will teach two courses in their home department(s) in each year of their residency. They will have the opportunity to teach in their existing areas of expertise to prepare themselves for a competitive academic job market. Fellows will be encouraged to take part in the many cross-departmental colloquia, conferences, or seminars though the university’s Humanities Center, the Center for the Arts in Society, and the undergraduate Humanities Scholars Program.

A 2011–2013 Fellow will receive an annual stipend of $50,000 plus benefits, an annual research allowance of $2,500, and, for the first year of the appointment, three summer months salary.

Application and selection process
Applicants for the 2011–2013 fellowships must have completed a Ph.D. no earlier than January 1, 2009. Candidates who do not yet hold a Ph.D. but expect to by June 30, 2011 should supply a letter from their home institution corroborating such a schedule.

Applications for the 2011–2013 fellowships must be received in the Administrator's office by November 19, 2010. Incomplete dossiers will not be reviewed. Candidates should submit a cover letter, CV, personal statement (of no longer than 2000 words) outlining their complete research (including dissertation), work in progress, professional goals and plans for publication, proposed major field(s) of teaching, and the Carnegie Mellon department in which you would want to be based, and three letters of reference. (Note: reference letters may be sent with the candidate’s application materials in sealed signed envelopes or directly by the referees.)

Fellowship applications and departmental requests to house a fellow will be evaluated by Carnegie Mellon’s Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Advisory Committee, in consultation with the Dean and Associate Dean of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences. Strong fellowship applications will be circulated to relevant departments.

Should you have questions, please direct them to hssdean@andrew.cmu.edu.

All application materials and other correspondence should be addressed to:
Administrator, A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Office of the Dean
Carnegie Mellon University
Baker Hall 154
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Charlie Rose: The Brain Series

2010-06-21T14:15:00.002-04:00

I just noticed this series. It seems that the episode scheduled for September 28 will focus on decision making.

LORI has a nice report on the Synthese Conference ...

2010-05-17T19:15:00.003-04:00

here.

HT to Greg Wheeler for the link to Giacomo's report at LORI.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the conference a success. We hope to see you in 2012!

The Transatlantic: FIRST ISSUE OUT NOW AND CALL FOR ARTICLES

2010-03-27T10:59:00.004-04:00

The Transatlantic - Journal of Economics and Philosophy - has published its first issue on the topic "Economics & Science". Visit www.thetransatlantic.org and click on "Current Issue" to skim through the online edition, which includes articles by undergraduates and graduates from universities such as Cambridge University, NYU and LSE. The first issue also features two guest articles - a piece by Tony Lawson, Professor of Economics at Cambridge University, and one by Lord Robert Skidelsky, Professor Emeritus at Warwick and biographer of John Maynard Keynes. Moreover, there is an interview with Emanuel Derman, Professor of Financial Engineering at Columbia University and former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, who discussed the relation between models in physics and finance with The Transatlantic.

The Transatlantic is an academic journal adopting an interdisciplinary approach to span the gulf between Economics and Philosophy. It is open to anyone and hopes to serve as a global forum for those with an interest in the field. It is in this spirit that students from London, New York, Shanghai, Toronto and many other places are currently working together to establish a new platform for debate. This endeavor is officially supported by the LSE Philosophy Society and the Columbia University Economics Society.

The Transatlantic is now calling for articles for its second issue on the topic "Growth", which will be published in autumn 2010. Scholars and students from all over the world are invited to approach this topic in various ways. Articles may be written both on economic and financial growth, as well as on demographic growth or the growth of knowledge - as long as they link the disciplines Philosophy and Economics. Interested? Please send us an abstract of your article by May 31, 2010 to submit@thetransatlantic.org. We hope to hear from you.

If you would like to get involved, please e-mail us at info@thetransatlantic.org
The Transatlantic Team
www.thetransatlantic.org

NASSLLI 2010 is Open for Registration

2010-03-22T11:56:00.002-04:00

NASSLLI 2010 is Open for Registration!

Fourth North American Summer School in Logic, Language, and Information NASSLLI 2010

June 20-26, 2010

http://www.indiana.edu/~nasslli/

The North American Summer School in Logic, Language, and Information (NASSLLI) is a summer school with classes in the interface between computer science, linguistics, and logic.

After previous editions at Stanford University, Indiana University, and UCLA, NASSLLI will return to Bloomington, Indiana, June 20–26, 2010. The summer school, loosely modeled on the long-running ESSLLI series in Europe, will consist of a number of courses and workshops, selected on the basis of the proposals. Courses and workshops meet for 90 or 120 minutes on each of five days, June 21–25, and there will be tutorials on June 20 and a day-long workshop on June 26. The instructors are prominent researchers who volunteer their time and energy to present basic work in their disciplines. Many are coming from Europe just to teach at NASSLLI.

NASSLLI courses are aimed at graduate students and advanced undergraduates in wide variety of fields. The instructors know that people will be attending from a wide range of disciplines, and they all are pleased to be associated with an interdisciplinary school. The courses will also appeal to post-docs and researchers in all of the relevant fields.

We hope to have 100-150 participants. In addition to classes in the daytime, the evenings will have social events and plenary lectures. Bloomington is a wonderful place to visit, known for arts, music, and ethnic restaurants. All of this is within 15 minutes walking from campus. We aim to make NASSLLI fun and exciting.

Center for Formal Epistemology@CMU

2010-03-11T23:04:00.001-05:00

CENTER FOR FORMAL EPISTEMOLOGY
OPENING CELEBRATION CONFERENCE
June 26-27, 2010
Department of Philosophy
Carnegie Mellon University

Everyone interested is welcome to attend!

Confirmed speakers include:

Johan van Benthem, Amsterdam and Stanford
Paul Egre, Jean-Nicod Institute
Branden Fitelson, Rutgers
Stephan Hartmann, Tilburg
James Joyce, Michigan
Hans Kamp, Stuttgart
Hannes Leitgeb, Bristol
Rohit Parikh, CUNY
Wilfried Sieg, Carnegie Mellon
Brian Skyrms, UC Irvine
Wolfgang Spohn, Konstanz
James Woodward, Cal Tech

For details regarding the Center for formal epistemology, the opening
celebration conference, and local arrangements, please follow the
relevant links here.

We look forward to seeing you.

Kevin T. Kelly, Director
kk3n@andrew.cmu.edu
Horacio Arlo-Costa, Associate Director
hcosta@andrew.cmu.edu
Center for Formal Epistemology
Department of Philosophy
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

The March issue of The Reasoner is available

2010-02-26T09:00:00.002-05:00

... here

Reminder -- SIPTA Workshop on Uncertainty -- call for abstracts

2010-02-12T12:55:00.002-05:00

The Society for Imprecise Probabilities: Theories and Applications will hold a Workshop on Uncertainty at Columbia University on April 17^th of 2010, following the Synthese Conference on epistemology and economics that will take place at Columbia University on April 15^th and 16^th. We expect the workshop to feature a mixture of invited and contributed talks on the use of imprecise probabilities in models of inference and decision making under uncertainty.

Those who are interested in contributing a talk to the workshop should send a short abstract (no more than 300 words) to

synthese.conference.2010@gmail.com

with “SIPTA Workshop Contribution” in the subject of the message. Submitted abstracts must contain enough information for the committee to determine their suitability for a 20 minute talk followed by a 10 minute discussion period. Submitted abstracts must be received by February 20, 2010. Notifications of acceptance will be made by March 1, 2010. Due to the limited amount of space in Philosophy Hall, we ask those who would like to attend the meeting without giving a talk to send a copy of their CV to the same address as above but with “SIPTA Workshop Attendance” in the subject of the message.

Important Dates

Submissions: by February 20, 2010

Notifications: by March 1, 2010

Meeting: April 17, 2010

Organizing Committee

Horacio Arlo Costa

Jeff Helzner

Isaac Levi

Paul Pedersen

Erik Quaeghebeur (SIPTA Secretary)

Teddy Seidenfeld (SIPTA President)

Gregory Wheeler

The latest issue of The Reasoner is now freely available

2010-01-29T11:37:00.002-05:00

... here.

Carnegie Mellon Summer School in Logic and Formal Epistemology

2010-01-18T11:42:00.005-05:00

*Carnegie Mellon Summer School in Logic and Formal Epistemology*

In the summer of 2010, the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University will hold a three-week summer school in logic and formal epistemology for promising undergraduates in philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and other sciences.

The goals are to

introduce students to cross-disciplinary fields of research at an early stage in their career; and

forge lasting links between the various disciplines.

The summer school will be held from Monday, June 7 to Friday, June 25, 2010. There will be morning and afternoon lectures and daily problem sessions, as well as outings and social events.

The summer school is free. That is, we will provide

full tuition, and
dormitory accommodations on the Carnegie Mellon campus.

So students need only pay round trip travel to Pittsburgh and living expenses while
there. There are no grades, and the courses do not provide formal course credit.

Instructions for applying can be found on the summer school web page,

http://www.phil.cmu.edu/summerschool

Materials must be received by the Philosophy Department by March 15, 2010.

This year's topics are:

Logic and Scientific Inquiry
Monday, June 7 to Friday, June 11
Instructor: Clark Glymour

Computability and Foundations
Monday, June 14 to Friday, June 18
Instructor: Wilfried Sieg

Philosophical Logic and Formal Epistemology
Monday, June 21 to Friday, June 25
Instructor: Horacio Arlo-Costa

The summer school is open to undergraduates, as well as to students who will have just completed their first year of graduate school.

Applicants need not be US citizens. There is a $20 nonrefundable application fee.

Inquiries may be directed to Jeremy Avigad (avigad@cmu.edu).

Clark Glymour's interview from Epistemology:5 Questions is ...

2010-01-08T13:24:00.007-05:00

... now available at LORI.

SIPTA Workshop on Uncertainty

2010-01-01T19:35:00.006-05:00

Those who are interested in contributing a talk to the workshop should send a short abstract (no more than 300 words) to

synthese.conference.2010@gmail.com

Important Dates

Submissions: by February 20, 2010

Notifications: by March 1, 2010

Meeting: April 17, 2010

Organizing Committee

Horacio Arlo Costa

Jeff Helzner

Isaac Levi

Paul Pedersen

Erik Quaeghebeur (SIPTA Secretary)

Teddy Seidenfeld (SIPTA President)

Gregory Wheeler

10th Annual NYU/Columbia Graduate Student Philosophy Conference

2009-12-12T19:27:00.001-05:00

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

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

2009-12-04T11:21:00.004-05:00

The 2010 Synthese Conference: announcement and call for papers

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

2009-11-23T14:17:00.014-05:00

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

2009-10-19T13:11:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-01T12:25:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-28T11:45:00.002-04:00

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 ...

2009-08-28T17:06:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-25T12:41:00.002-04:00

Here is the story. HT to Leiter Reports.

ESSLI 2010 website

2009-08-17T10:44:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-10T14:27:00.004-04:00

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 ...

2009-07-27T10:54:00.004-04:00

... 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

2009-07-09T17:37:00.003-04:00

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

ESSLLI 2010

2009-07-05T16:20:00.004-04:00

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%
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 ...

2009-06-30T08:08:00.004-04:00

... now freely available for download.

The electronic proceedings for ISIPTA 09 are now available

2009-06-01T13:48:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-30T13:35:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-21T17:59:00.006-04:00

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 ...

2009-04-16T11:25:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-15T10:06:00.005-04:00

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

2009-04-12T07:25:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-03T08:47:00.002-04:00

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 ...

2009-04-03T08:35:00.008-04:00

"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

2009-03-21T22:37:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-06T14:45:00.005-05:00

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

2009-03-04T12:44:00.005-05:00

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

2009-03-03T12:01:00.005-05:00

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

2009-02-23T12:54:00.005-05:00

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

2009-02-17T11:18:00.006-05:00

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

2009-02-13T15:22:00.000-05:00

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

2009-02-05T12:01:00.006-05:00

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!

Summer School in Logic and Formal Epistemology at CMU

2008-12-18T18:27:00.002-05:00

Information about the 2009 program can be found here.

ISIPTA Second Call for papers

2008-11-26T12:05:00.002-05:00

======================================
ISIPTA '09 - 2nd CALL FOR PAPERS
=====================================
Your help with circulating this announcement locally is much
appreciated. Apologies for multiple postings.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ISIPTA '09
6th International Symposium on Imprecise Probability:
Theories and Applications

Tuesday 14 to Saturday 18 July 2009
Durham University, Department of Mathematical Sciences
Durham, United Kingdom
http://www.sipta.org/isipta09

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The ISIPTA meetings are the primary international forum to present and discuss new results on the theories and applications of imprecise probability.

Imprecise probability is a generic term for the many mathematical and statistical models and methods, allowing us to measure chance or uncertainty without the restriction of sharp probabilities. These models include lower and upper expectations or previsions, interval-valued probabilities, sets of probability measures, belief functions, Choquet capacities, comparative probability orderings, fuzzy measures, possibility measures, plausibility measures, and sets of desirable gambles. Imprecise probability models are needed in inference and decision problems where the relevant information is scarce, vague or conflicting, and where preferences may be incomplete.

Symposium format
----------------

It is a tradition of the ISIPTA meetings that we try to avoid parallel sessions. Each accepted paper is to be presented both (i) in a plenary session, where we ask for a short introduction and sketch of the context and relevance of the paper; and (ii) in a poster session, where ample opportunity and time is given for detailed explanation and discussion.

For the 2009 meeting, we also invite posters without a paper. We hope to attract people who wish to present and discuss their work within the framework of the conference but whose results are not yet finalized, for instance, for practitioners who wish to discuss possibilities for applications in their field using imprecise probabilities, or for starting students. If you wish to present a poster without paper, you are invited to submit a one-page abstract of the work you intend to present. These abstracts will be made available at the conference and online.

Themes of the symposium
-----------------------

The symposium is open to contributions on all aspects of imprecise probability. But we particularly welcome contributions on imprecise probability in statistical inference and decision making.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- models of coherent imprecise assessments
- sets of probability measures, credal sets
- interval-valued probabilities
- upper and lower expectations or previsions
- non-additive set functions, and in particular Choquet capacities (and
Choquet integration), fuzzy measures, possibility measures, belief and
plausibility measures
- random sets
- rough sets
- comparative probability orderings
- qualitative reasoning about uncertainty
- imprecision in utilities and expected utilities
- limit laws for imprecise probabilities
- physical models of imprecise probability
- philosophical foundations for imprecise probabilities
- psychological models for imprecision and indeterminacy in probability
assessments
- elicitation techniques for imprecise probabilities
- robust statistics
- probabilistic bounding analysis
- data mining with imprecise probabilities
- dealing with missing data
- estimation and learning of imprecise probability models
- decision making with imprecise probabilities
- ambiguity aversion and economic models of imprecise probability
- uncertainty in financial markets
- algorithms for manipulating imprecise probabilities
- Dempster-Shafer theory
- information algebras and probabilistic argumentation systems
- probabilistic logic, propositional and first-order
- credal networks and other graphical models
- credal classification
- applications in statistics, economics, finance, management,
engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence,
psychology, philosophy and related fields.

Special sessions
----------------

In memory of Henry Kyburg and Pauline Coolen-Schrijner, two special sessions will be organized. The papers for these sessions will be selected by the steering committee.

Location
--------

ISIPTA '09 will be held at Durham University, Collingwood College, in Durham, United Kingdom. Collingwood College provides onsite ensuite accommodation. More information about Collingwood College can be found on this website:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/collingwood/

Important dates
---------------

For papers:

Paper submission deadline: January 30 2009
Notification of paper acceptance: March 15 2009
Deadline for revised papers: April 15 2009

For posters without paper:

Abstract submission deadline: April 15 2009
Notification of acceptance: May 1 2009

Symposium: July 14-18 2009

Submissions
-----------

Papers can be submitted electronically using the conference website
(http://www.sipta.org/isipta09/).

Programme Committee Board
-------------------------

Thomas Augustin (Ludwig-Maximilians University, Germany)
Frank Coolen (Durham University, UK)
Serafin Moral (Universidad de Granada, Spain)
Matthias Troffaes (Durham University, UK)

Steering Committee
------------------

Thomas Augustin (Ludwig-Maximilians University, Germany)
Frank Coolen (Durham University, UK)
Gert de Cooman (Universiteit Gent, Belgium)
Serafin Moral (Universidad de Granada, Spain)
Teddy Seidenfeld (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Matthias Troffaes (Durham University, UK)

Further details
---------------

For further details about (pre)registration, paper submission, scientific and cultural programme, programme committee, please consult the ISIPTA '09 web site at http://www.sipta.org/isipta09/.

Details about previous ISIPTA meetings can be found at
http://www.sipta.org/isipta/.

More information about SIPTA, the international organisation responsible for organizing both the ISIPTA meetings and the SIPTA Schools on Imprecise Probabilities, please consult the SIPTA web site at http://www.sipta.org.

Questions
---------

If you have any questions about the symposium, please contact the Steering Committee preferably by email (frank.coolen@durham.ac.uk or matthias.troffaes@gmail.com), or at the following address:

Frank Coolen / Matthias Troffaes
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Durham University
Science Laboratories, South Road
Durham, DH1 3LE, ENGLAND

FEW call for papers

2008-10-31T11:19:00.004-04:00

CMU will host FEW this year. The conference is scheduled for June rather than May. The call for papers appears below:

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

We are in the process of organizing our sixth annual formal epistemology workshop (the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth workshops were all great successes). The purpose of these workshops is to bring together individuals, both faculty and graduate students, using mathematical methods in epistemology in small focused meetings. Topics treated will include but are not limited to:

* Ampliative inference (including inductive logic);
* Game theory and decision theory;
* Formal learning theory;
* Formal theories of coherence:
* Foundations of probability and statistics;
* Formal approaches to paradoxes of belief and/or action;
* Belief revision;
* Causal discovery.

Besides papers with respondents, each workshop will typically include short introductory tutorials (two or three topically related presentations) on formal methods. These tutorials will be oriented particularly to graduate students.

The sixth workshop is scheduled for June 18 – June 21, 2009 and will be held at Carnegie Mellon University. We are now accepting submissions for FEW 2009. Please send submissions by email to Branden Fitelson. Submissions are due — in the form of full papers — by Sunday, March 15, 2009; notifications of acceptance either as definite presenters or as alternates will be sent out by Thursday, April 30, 2008. Some of the papers presented at FEW 2009 will appear in a special issue of the
Journal of Philosophical Logic.

Those interested in participating, either by presenting papers, responding, or providing tutorials, or in helping with organization, should contact one of the local organizers listed below. We can contribute $500 in travel funds for every graduate student who presents or comments on a paper. We are also able to contribute $250 in travel costs for a number (to be determined) of graduate students who attend the workshop without presenting or commenting on a paper. Priority will
be given to graduate students who have not attended previous workshops, and to women and minorities. Graduate students who wish to be considered for travel funding should contact Kevin Kelly or Richard Scheines (the local organizers this year) by May 1, 2009.

Kevin Kelly
Richard Scheines
CMU

Branden Fitelson
UC-Berkeley

Sahotra Sarkar
UT-Austin

----

NOTE: The FEW website is now located at:

http://fitelson.org/few/

We hope to see you all in Pittsburgh in June!

New course at CUNY

2008-10-30T18:34:00.003-04:00

Rohit Parikh is preparing a new course focusing on epistemic logic at CUNY. Here are excerpts of the informal description of the course and some administrative data about the course itself:

PHIL 76800 - Epistemic Logic and Applications (Tuesdays 6:30-8:30)

Epistemic logic has gone through an explosive development since the publication of two books, Knowledge and Belief: An introduction to the logic of the two notions, by Jaakko Hintikka, and Convention: A philosophical study, by David Lewis. Developments in epistemic logic have since influenced philosophy, computer science, economics, linguistics and social science. After doing a survey of the two books mentioned above, the course will proceed to cover more recent topics like common knowledge, logical omniscience, agreeing to disagree, "no-trade" theorems, cheap talk and knowledge updating.

Students will benefit more if they are familiar with propositional logic (which is pretty much required) and have some idea of Kripke structures, although the latter will be covered in the course.

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

It seems that the course will cover both issues related to philosophical foundations and more applied and technical results. There are few courses that manage to do both things at an excellent level so this seems a nice opportunity for students in the NYC area.

Two talks today in NYC

2008-10-23T10:22:00.003-04:00

Greg Wheeler will give a talk on "Coherence and Confirmation" at 6:30 today in Rohit Parikh's seminar at CUNY Graduate Center. Also today, Thomas Kelly will give a talk on "Confidence and Belief Revision" at 4:10 in Philosophy Hall here at Columbia.

Today, in my mailbox ...

2008-09-29T13:08:00.002-04:00

I found my copy of Epistemology: 5 questions. It looks great, and I can't wait to read it. Unfortunately I will have to do just that, since other work calls. However, unable to resist a brief look, I stumbled upon the following passage in Timothy Williamson's response to being asked what he regards as the most neglected topics and/or contributions in contemporary epistemology: "The best hope for progress in epistemology lies in the use of methods that have not been part of its stock and trade for centuries. Close to my heart, of course, are the methods of formal epistemology, especially epistemic logic and probability theory. The methods of experimental psychology also promise to shake up comfortable assumptions of belief-forming processes." Seems right to me!

Extended Deadline -- First European Graduate School for Philosophy of Language, Mind and Science

2008-09-26T14:08:00.013-04:00

"Extended Deadline: 11th October 2008Bochum/Tilburg: First European Graduate School -- Philosophy of Language, Mind and Science

*Session 1: Rationality, Consciousness and the Architecture of the Mind10-14 November 2008Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany*Keynote Speakers: José Luis Bermúdez (Washington University St. Louis),Peter Carruthers (University of Maryland) and Michael Esfeld (University of Lausanne)

*Session 2: Reasoning and Decision Making17-21 November 2008Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science (TiLPS), Tilburg University, The Netherlands*Keynote Speakers: Ulrike Hahn (Cardiff), MichaelPauen (HU Berlin), J.D. Trout (Loyola University Chicago) and Michiel van Lambalgen (University of Amsterdam)"

Additional information can be found here.

ISIPTA 09 - CALL FOR PAPERS

2008-09-26T11:49:00.002-04:00

"The ISIPTA meetings are the primary international forum to present and discuss new results on the theories and applications of imprecise probability.Imprecise probability is a generic term for the many mathematical and statistical models and methods, allowing us to measure chance or uncertainty without the restriction of sharp probabilities. These models include lower and upper expectations or previsions, interval-valued probabilities, convex sets of probability measures, belief functions, Choquet capacities, comparative probability orderings, fuzzy measures, possibility measures, plausibility measures, and sets of desirable gambles. Imprecise probability models are needed in inference and decision problems where the relevant information is scarce, vague or conflicting, and where preferences maybe incomplete."

Additional information about ISIPTA 09, including the call for papers, can be found here.

Addendum to the previous post

2008-09-07T16:13:00.008-04:00

Vincent Hendricks asked if I would post information about the new "5 Questions" volume. I'm happy to oblige. However, and not surprisingly, Horacio beat me to it! Well, in any case, the following information may be taken as an addendum to Horacio's post:

NOW AVAILABLE! Epistemology: 5 Questions Edited by Vincent F. Hendricks & Duncan Pritchard ISBN: 978-87-92130-07-5List Price: $38 / £28372 pages New York, London: Automatic Press / VIP Epistemology: 5 Questions is a collection of short interviews based on 5questions presented to some of the most influential and prominent scholars in epistemology. We hear their views on epistemology with particular emphasis on the intersection between mainstream and formal approaches to thefield; the aim, scope, the future direction of epistemology and how their work fits in these respects.

Buy from Amazon

"In your hands, you have a terrific collection of interviews about epistemology by some of the leading contemporary epistemologists. An impressive array of insight, charm, and iconoclastic comments by some of the people who changed the field forever. A must read!" - Otávio Bueno,University of Miami

"Vincent F. Hendricks and Duncan Pritchard have done the epistemology community a big favor: they have elicited revealing personal histories and comments on the state of the field from a variety of the field's leading researchers [...] It is both a snapshot of various influential research trajectories as they stand at the present time, and a collection of tantalizing suggestions for new avenues of research. I recommend it especially to those thinking about the connections between what Hendricks has elsewhere called "mainstream and formal epistemology." - Sanford Goldberg, Northwestern University

"Think of knowledge as a primitive concept, the dynamics of belief, reliable inquiry, social judgment. Think of mainstream epistemology, formal epistemology, scientific epistemology. Think of philosophy crossing with computer science, logic, psychology, sociology. Think of some of the main figures in these fields. Think of a lot of fun. Don't think twice: It's Epistemology: 5 Questions." - Hannes Leitgeb, University of Bristol

"Vincent F. Hendricks and Duncan Pritchard have produced a remarkable volume: the list of 29 interviewees reads like a "who's who" of leading contemporary epistemologists, and by carrying out interviews structured around 5 leading questions, the editors have produced a collection that anyone interested in recent and contemporary debates in epistemology will find both useful and entertaining." - Alexander Miller, University of Birmingham

Preface iii Acknowledgements v1 Horacio Arló-Costa 12 Sergei Artemov 113 Alexandru Baltag 214 Johan van Benthem 395 Luc Bovens 476 Lorraine Code 637 Fred Dretske 798 Pascal Engel 879 Robert J. Fogelin 9510 Richard Fumerton 10511 Clark Glymour 11712 Alvin I. Goldman 12113 Alan Hájek 13914 Joseph Y. Halpern 15515 Sven Ove Hansson 16716 Jaakko Hintikka 17917 Wiebe van der Hoek 18518 Kevin T. Kelly 19119 Hilary Kornblith 21120 Martin Kusch 21721 Jonathan L. Kvanvig 23122 Isaac Levi 24123 Rohit Parikh 25724 John L. Pollock 26725 Krister Segerberg 28326 Ernest Sosa 30527 Wolfgang Spohn 31128 Timothy Williamson 32329 Linda Zagzebski 335

Epistemology: 5 Questions

2008-09-07T12:24:00.002-04:00

Vincent F. Hendricks and Duncan Pritchard have edited an interesting new volume of the series 5 Questions which this time focuses on epistemology. The list of invitees is eclectic and inclusive: Arló-Costa, Artemov, Baltag, van Benthem, Bovens, Code, Dretske, Engel, Fogelin, Fumerton, Glymour, Goldman, Hájek, Halpern, Hansson, Hintikka, van der Hoek, Kelly, Kornbilth, Kusch, Kvanvig, Levi, Parikh, Pollock, Segerberg, Sosa, Spohn, Williamson, and Zagzebski.

I have not received the book yet, but I already read some of the essays of the book and they seem really interesting. I am looking forward to reading the entire book. This is an exciting and transformative moment for epistemology and the volume seems to capture much of the feeling of renewal that permeates work of in the field today.

Some reviews are already available:

Think of knowledge as a primitive concept, the dynamics of belief, reliable inquiry, social judgment. Think of mainstream epistemology, formal epistemology, scientific epistemology. Think of philosophy crossing with computer science, logic, psychology, sociology. Think of some of the main figures in these fields. Think of a lot of fun. Don't think twice: It's "Epistemology 5 Questions." Hannes Leitgeb, University of Bristol.

Updated LaTeX for Philosophers

2008-09-04T05:40:00.002-04:00

I've updated LaTeX for Philosophers with an easier to maintain site and some new typesetting solutions, including a few new entailment relations. Please feel welcome to send along tips or suggestions for the page.

Intuitionistic mathematics for physics

2008-08-22T16:44:00.003-04:00

Andrej Bauer (mathematician, computer scientist, and old friend from Carnegie Mellon) has an interesting post on why he thinks intutionistic mathematics is good for physics (HTs to Brian Weatherson and Greg Restall).

Random numbers (for free)

2008-08-05T12:16:00.003-04:00

Prompted by a nice discussion that Horacio and I had concerning a possible experiment, I did some looking around for random number generators and stumbled upon this site that uses atmospheric noise as a source of randomness. The basic services on the site are free, but they do offer a premium generator. I'm not sure about the true randomness claims on the site, and I suppose that more pedestrian sources abound (e.g. perhaps variation in the time interval between successive beats of your heart), but the site is worth a look.

Final CfP: Kyburg Issue of Synthese

2008-06-27T15:14:00.003-04:00

Horacio and I are editing a special issue of Synthese commemorating the work of Henry Kyburg. We have a distinguished list of invited contributions for the volume, but we are also soliciting an open call for papers. Submissions on any area of Kyburg's work are welcome. They should be formatted for blind review and e-mailed to me, grw at fct.unl.pt, or Horacio, hcosta at andrew.cmu.edu, before July 30, 2008.

Ramsey (1929) on distinctions between logic, mathematics, and philosophy

2008-06-20T13:16:00.005-04:00

In "Philosophy" (1929) Ramsey states that "Logic issues in tautologies, mathematics in identities, philosophy in definitions; all trivial but all part of the vital work of clarifying and organizing our thought. " I'm assuming that Ramsey means to identify the central product in each of these fields, otherwise the statement reads like a platitude -- sure, Ramsey was just twenty-five when he made the comment, but we're talking about someone who D.H. Mellor, in his introduction to Philosophical Papers, seems to place above the likes of Moore, Russell, Whitehead, and Wittgenstein. In any case, if Ramsey intended something along the lines of the former, then his statement strikes me as wrong, at least from a modern view. Sometimes an important mathematical contribution comes in the form of a definition, as the successful isolation of a powerful idea. For example, consider some of the basic definitions from computability theory or, perhaps closer to mathematics proper, some of the fundamental ideas from category theory (e.g. natural transformation, adjoint functor).

An entertaining interview with Clark Glymour

2008-06-05T13:56:00.004-04:00

Logic and Rational Interaction has posted an entertaining interview with Clark Glymour. The interview is part of Epistemology: 5 Questions, a new collection edited by Vincent Hendricks and Duncan Pritchard.

Two PSM related items

2008-06-02T10:14:00.006-04:00

First, congratulations to Wilfried Sieg on being named the Patrick Suppes Professor of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon. Suppes, a student of Ernest Nagel and one of the editors of the volume that inspired this blog, is among the most distinguished scientific philosophers of his generation. For those of you who are not familiar with his work, I encourage you to look at the Collected Works of Patrick Suppes, an excellent resource that is available online. It is great to see Wilfried, who studied with Suppes at Stanford, receive this wonderful recognition of his own distinguished body of work.

Second, there is a very interesting interview with Isaac Levi in the July 2007 newsletter from the Society for Imprecise Probability: Theories and Applications. I know that Greg mentioned this a few months ago over on Certain Doubts, but I've taken the opportunity to mention it again since the interview gives nice insight into the work of another one of Nagel's outstanding students.

Sidney Morgenbesser discussing the American Pragmatists

2008-05-18T13:02:00.007-04:00

This might be old news to many people, but I just learned that YouTube is now carrying several programs in which Bryan Magee talks with philosophers such as Ayer, Quine, Putnam, and Morgenbesser. Many are familiar with the lore surrounding Magee's discussion with Sidney Morgenbesser. It is an understatement to say that Morgenbesser was not pleased with the program that resulted from his discussion with Magee. In light of this, it might be suggested that one should not draw attention to the program, that doing so is disrespectful. My reason for mentioning the program here is quite the opposite. By all accounts, Morgenbesser possessed a philosophical intelligence that was remarkable in both power and direction, but he published comparatively little. Magee's discussion with Morgenbesser is one of a small number of opportunities that are available to those who wish to learn more about this remarkable philosopher. So, without further ado ...

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Thanks, but I can read the paper myself.

2008-05-13T16:55:00.013-04:00

You've decided to walk over to the philosophy department at your university to hear a talk by a distinguished visitor. As a faculty member working in cognitive science you are excited by the prospect of interdisciplinary collaboration, and you've heard about some interesting work being done over in the philosophy department. You did a philosophy minor in college, but you've never attended a talk by a professional philosopher. You walk over to the building that houses the philosophy department and then climb the stairs to the room where the talk is being held. The room is packed, and you struggle to find a seat. Finally, the speaker makes his way to the front of the room. He clears his throat, takes a sip of water and then ... wait for it ... wait for it ... starts to read his paper out loud. You wonder why you bothered schlepping over to the other side of campus just to hear some guy read his paper, a paper that you could have read yourself at a more convenient time.

Whenever I mention this tradition to academics in other fields (e.g. computer science, mathematics), they seem amazed that this sort of thing is allowed (as if one could expect most states to have laws against it). Now, I don't think the philosophical community is under any obligation to explain its traditions to colleagues in other fields, but why is reading the paper OK (or even preferable) when it comes to giving a talk in a philosophy department? I think it is easy to appreciate how the practice seems odd, or even suspicious, to colleagues in mathematics or the sciences. What can be said in support of this practice in light of these sorts of reactions?

Synthese edits two special issues on the foundations of the decision sciences.

2008-05-06T11:21:00.003-04:00

Jeff Helzner and Horacio Arló-Costa are editing two special issues of the journal Synthese on the foundations of the decision sciences. The first issue is now completed but some articles are still under review. We will announce soon the date of publication of the first issue.

The idea of these issues is to offer a broad view of recent foundational work in the many branches of the decision sciences, from evolutionary game theory to behavioral decision theory to classical foundational work on axiomatic accounts of decision under uncertainty. The contributors include both philosophers engaged in theoretical or experimental work and decision scientists with an interest in foundations.

Contents of the first issue

L. Bovens and W. Rabinowicz, The puzzle of the hats.

S. Huttegger, B. Skyrms, R. Smead, K. Zollman, Evolutionary dynamics of Lewis signaling games: Signaling vs. partial pooling.

P. Maher, Bayesian probability.

N-E. Sahlin, A. Wallin and J. Persson, Decision science: From Ramsey to Dual Process Theory.

T. Seidenfeld, M.J. Schervish, J.B. Kadane, Coherent choice functions under uncertainty.

I. Levi, Probability logic, logical probability and inductive support.

I. Gilboa, A. Postlewaite and D. Schmeidler, Rationality of belief: Or: Why Savage's axioms are neither necessary nor sufficient for rationality.

D. Samet, S5 knowledge without partitions.

J. Baron, Cognitive biases in moral judgments that affect political behavior.

H. Arló-Costa and J. Helzner, Ambiguity aversion: The explanatory power of indeterminate probabilities.

Contributors to the second issue

S. Hartmann and J. Sprenger, A. Hájek and M. Smithson, J. Joyce, E. McClennen, C. Bicchieri, A. Rustichini, P.J. Hammond, G. Gigerenzer, J. Collins, and W. Spohn.

Handbook of Analysis and its Foundations

2008-05-03T12:53:00.003-04:00

Paul Halmos remarked in his automathography that a good way to learn a lot of mathematics is by reading the first chapters of many mathematics books. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if there was a single book that eliminated the overlapping material such an exercise would entail, included frequent cross-references between topics, and sought to show the connections between various branches of mathematics...and all this between the covers of one volume for around a hundred bucks?

Eric Schechter has written such a book, "The Handbook of Analysis and Its Foundations", Academic Press, 1997.

FotFS VII

2008-05-01T16:04:00.008-04:00

FotFS VII, the next conference in the Foundations of the Formal Sciences series, will take place at Vrije Universiteit Brussel from October 21-24, 2008. Information about the conference, including the call for papers, can be found at

http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/people/fotfs/VII/.

Note that the submission deadline is July 15.

Maintaining connections with other disciplines

2008-04-21T08:51:00.007-04:00

Earlier this term I had a chance to speak with Robert Friedman, a distinguished mathematician here at Columbia. During our conversation I suggested to Professor Friedman that it is important for philosophy to maintain contact with other disciplines and that surely he was familiar with analogous issues within mathematics -- lest you think that distinguished mathematicians at Columbia walk over to Philosophy Hall to seek the opinions of junior faculty, let me assure you that this was not the case on this occasion. Anyway, it was in the context of this exchange that I referred Professor Friedman to the following passage by von Neumann:

As a mathematical discipline travels far from its empirical source, or still more, if it is a second and third generation only indirectly inspired by ideas coming from "reality" it is beset with very grave dangers. It becomes more and more purely aestheticizing, more and more purely I'art pour I'art. This need not be bad, if the field is surrounded by correlated subjects, which still have closer empirical connections, or if the discipline is under the influence of men with an exceptionally well-developed taste. But there is a grave danger that the subject will develop along the line of least resistance, that the stream, so far from its source, will separate into a multitude of insignificant branches, and that the discipline will become a disorganized mass of details and complexities. In other words, at a great distance from its empirical source, or after much "abstract" inbreeding, a mathematical subject is in danger of degeneration. At the inception the style is usually classical; when it shows signs of becoming baroque, then the danger signal is up. (from "The Mathematician")

I'm not sure if Professor Friedman shares concerns of the sort that are suggested in this quote -- concerned that I had said something inappropriate, I reminded him of the following joke:

Q: What is the difference between a mathematician and a philosopher?
A: The mathematician only needs paper, pencil, and a trash bin for his work - the philosopher can do without the trash bin...

No, I don't think that this is the difference between mathematicians and philosophers, but it is a nice joke to have in your pocket if you are a junior philosopher in need of a little self-deprecation while in the company of a distinguished mathematician at your university.

What sorts of things should we try to do in this forum?

2008-04-20T18:45:00.004-04:00

A central aim of this blog, at least as I see it at this moment, is to promote matters that are of interest to those philosophers who maintain significant contact with mathematics or the sciences (natural, social, or artificial), either by way of the methods that they employ or the questions that they attempt to address. Within "mainstream" areas of philosophy one can point to several lively blogs that, among other things, serve as a place to do philosophy of that sort. Can blogging offer something comparable to the areas of philosophy that are of particular concern here?

About this blog

2008-04-18T09:26:00.000-04:00

The name of this blog is taken from a well-known collection of essays in honor of Ernest Nagel. The purpose of this blog is to disseminate information about philosophical activity that is consistent with the sensibilities and commitments that are represented in that collection.