Certain Doubts

Northwestern University will host the MIDWEST EPISTEMOLOGY WORKSHOP November 30 – December 1, 2007. It includes nine non-concurrent sessions by various midwestern epistemologists and a keynote talk to be given by Ernie Sosa.

This is the inaugural event for what we (Al Casullo, Jennifer Lackey, Baron Reed and myself) hope will become an annual workshop, aimed at fostering discussion among epistemologists of the Midwest, on topics of mutual interest. We envisage the annual meeting taking place at a different Midwestern department each year. The aim will be to include a wide range of Midwestern epistemologists as speakers at the annual workshop, and to continue to enhance a sense a community among epistemologists located in the Midwest. (Of course epistemologists from other regions are free to participate as well.)

For more details about the workshop, or to see the program or find information about local accommodations, please visit

http://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/epistemology/mew/index.html

In addition, feel free to contact me at s-goldberg@northwestern.edu

The sixth issue of The Reasoner is up.

Editorial – Jon Williamson
Interview with Colin Howson – Jon Williamson

Features:
Why we shouldn’t fault Lucas and Penrose for continuing to believe in the Godelian argument against computationalism I – Bhupinder Singh Anand
There is no question about it! – Barry Hartley Slater
‘Can’, the Principle of Relevant Alternatives, and Moral Responsibility – John K. Alexander
Referential Usage and Godelian Completions – Francesco Pupa

News:
Report on the Programme: Bayesian Nonparametric Regression, Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, 30 July – 24 August 2007 – Stephen Walker
Progic 2007: the Third Workshop on Combining Probability and Logic, University of Kent, Canterbury, 5–7 September 2007 – Jan-Willem Romeijn

This is the half-year mark for The Reasoner. Judging by Google rank and downloads, the gazette seems to be off to a strong start. (Thanks!) So, from now on, to keep up with future issues, visit The Reasoner to sign-up for E-mail notification. And keep the submissions coming!

Ram just sent me a response to the S&H really nice piece discussed here, and I thought posting it would generate further discussion of the piece. So here it is for download: “Knowledge and Reasoning”.

Synthese hosts its first annual conference at the Carlsberg Academy in Copenhagen, October 3- 5 , 2007. The conference is sponsored by PHIS – The Danish Research School in Philosophy, History of Ideas and History of Science and Springer.

Between Logic and Intuition: David Lewis and the Future of Formal Methods in Philosophy

David Lewis is one of the most important figures in contemporary philosophy. His approach balances elegantly between the use of rigorous formal methods and sound philosophical intuitions. The benefit of such an approach is reflected in the substantial impact his philosophical insights have had not only in many core areas of philosophy, but also in neighboring disciplines ranging from computer science to game theory and linguistics. The interplay between logic and intuition to obtain results of both philosophical and interdisciplinary importance makes Lewis’ work a prime example of formal philosophy. Lewis’ work exemplifies the fruitful interplay between logic and intuition that is central to contemporary philosophy. This conference serves as a tribute to Lewis and as a venue for adressing questions concerning the relationship between logic and philosophical intuition.

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From Stephan Hartmann, news of another formal epistemology position. Further information here.

Vincent Hendricks has initiated an exciting new venture:

φ-BOOK is an annual volume devoted to philosophical logic and its relation to philosophy and science with particular emphasis on multi-agent and modal systems, active agency and social software. The yearbook is intended to inform the community of current and future directions of research and activity in philosophical logic, major events, books and important papers of the past year but also leaves extensive room for discussion in terms of columns, opinion pieces, and critical reports.

Multi-agent systems (MAS) is a booming area in AI and philosophical logic, and the Phi-book series promises to cover developments in both disciplines. There is a call for extensive survey papers (30-50 pages) due March 1, 2008; publication is scheduled for summer 2008. For more details, click here!

From Franz Huber, some announcements:

1. First, a job! Here’s a link to the job ad.

2. Second, a reminder and call for papers for the First Formal Epistemology Festival.

3. Third, a call for papers for a special issue of Erkenntnis on Conditionals and Ranking Functions, guest edited by Franz Huber, Eric Swanson, and Jonathan Weisberg.

At a time when countless people feel compelled to share their intimate lives with the world, and when the means for doing so are becoming less expensive and easier to use, it is nice to know that people the world over still lie about sex.

In survey after survey within country after country men report having more heterosexual partners over their lifetime than women do, and as this article and this clarification point out, what people say in these surveys cannot be a reflection of what they do.

If these surveys were representative, we would expect that the average number of heterosexual partners reported by men in each sample to approximate the average number reported by women. Instead, the numbers aren’t even close. In Britain men report having an average of 12.7 hetrosexual partners over a lifetime whereas women report an average of 6.5; in France men report an average of 11.6 heterosexual partners, women 4.4; and in Germany men say 15.5, women 10.1.

In the US men report a median of 7 heterosexual partners and women 4, whereas Durex, the prophylactics manufacturer, plays safe in its 2005 global sex survey by reporting both that the average number of (heterosexual?) partners worldwide is 9, and that the global average for men is 10.2 and that the global average for women is 6.9.

Although dubious, the statistics are striking. From rigorous studies to pulp-weekly polls, swinging Berlin to dour Bethesda, straight men and women invariably talk one way yet walk another. This invites explanation.

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tIf you like epistemology, Madison will be the place to be in May of 2008, with the Wisconsin Epistemology Conference and the Formal Epistemology Workshop.

The Wisconsin Epistemology Conference will take place on May 3 and 4, and the speakers will be Earl Conee, Richard Feldman, Alvin Goldman, Ernest SosaTimothy Williamson. More information can be found on the conference webpage.

Just two weeks after that, from May 14 to May 18, the Fifth Formal Epistemology Workshop will also take place in Madison. The invited speakers will be Allan Gibbard, Roy Sorensen, and Wolfgang Spohn. For more information about this installment of the FEW, please contact the local organizers, Peter Vranas and Malcolm Forster.

Progic 2007 has just ended and was a great success. Thanks again to all who participated. To those who missed it, nearly all of the slides are now online and all of them warrant a look. Some highlights that might interest CD readers: David Makinson spoke on some wonderful work he and Jim Hawthorne have done on the relationships between quantitative and qualitative properties of weakened (non-monotone) entailment relations; Stephan Hartmann and Gabriella Pigozzi gave us a glimpse of the near-future in formal epistemology: aggregation of judgments and the problem of truth-tracking; Fabio Cozman gave a terrific talk on independence relations within probabilistic logic; and Gert de Cooman presented to us a true gem: a beautiful theory of belief structures based upon the theory of imprecise probabilities.

This brief note is a teaser, suggesting several entry points for reviewing the talks. A more thorough report is expected to appear in next month’s issue of The Reasoner.