SIPTA Workshop on Uncertainty

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

10th Annual NYU/Columbia Graduate Student Philosophy Conference

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

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

The 2010 Synthese Conference: announcement and call for papers

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

Alexandru Baltag (Oxford)

Adam Brandenburger (NYU)

Cristina Bicchieri (Penn)

Christian List (LSE)

Wlodek Rabinowicz (Lund)

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

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

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

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

First, the following announcement comes from Rohit Parikh:

CONFERENCE ON EASTERN AND WESTERN PHILOSPHICAL THEMES

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

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

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

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

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

travel grants.

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

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

The 2010 Synthese Conference: announcement and call for papers

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

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

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

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

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

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

Student Journal of Economics and Philosophy

From Leoni Linek:

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

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

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

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

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

The Transatlantic Team"

Seminar in Logic and Games at CUNY Graduate Center

From Rohit Parikh:

"Seminar in Logic and Games

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

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

Title: "Fragmented belief states and logical omniscience"

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

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

"Philosophical Duals" at Columbia

From Achille Varzi:

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