Logik vid Göteborgs Universitet

Ungefärligen varannan fredag förmiddag träffas filosofiska et cetera institutionens logikseminarium. Seminariet riktar sig till c/d-studenter, doktorander, lärare och forskare i logik, men även till intresserade från andra ämnen. Vi varvar arbetsseminarier, då egna texter presenteras, med seminarier av fördjupande eller mer allmänbildande karaktär.

Det finns en epostlista som alla intresserade kan anmäla sig till. Information om nästkommande seminarium skickas ut en knapp vecka i förväg. Listan har adress logik@listserv.hum.gu.se

Tid: 10:15 - 12:00
Plats: T116 (OBS ny lokal), Gamla Hovrätten Olof Wijksgatan 6, om inte annat meddelas. Lokalen ligger i gatuplanet; genom huvudingången, rakt fram, sedan till vänster och längst bort i korridoren.
Det finns ett arkiv för äldre seminarier. Vill du prata på seminariet eller har du förslag på talare? Hör då av dig till logic@gu.se.

Vårterminen 2010 – lite preliminärt än så länge

• 29/1: Palle Leth Frege om predikatreferens
  Freges tes att predikattermer har Bedeutung anses allmänt vara djupt problematisk. De flesta anser att Freges grund för tesen var hans övertygelse om att relationen mellan predikat och begrepp är analog med relationen mellan egennamn och objekt. Jag hoppas visa på att Freges texter i frågan inte ger något stöd för uppfattningen att en sådan analogi ligger till grund för hans tes att predikat har Bedeutung.
• 12/2: Ulf Persson Platonism and Mathematics
  For some reason Platonism is considered something of a dirty word in philosophy, a symptom of rigid naivity, and something people rather distance themselves from even if they advocate ideas essentially congruent with it. In the seminar I intend to champion mathematical Platonism in its interpretation as mathematical realism and discuss how to distinguish between the transhuman and human elements in mathematics, the failure of which I believe is the basis for much confusion that characterizes the ongoing debate. The talk is going to be predominantly speculative and philosophical in nature.
• 26/2: Denis Bonnay Modeling Inexact Knowledge
  Perceptual indiscriminability is typically intransitive. Given three shades of color a, b and c, it can well be the case that I am not able to distinguish between a and b on the one hand, b and c on the other hand, even though I can distinguish between a and c. In this talk, I will discuss two issues regarding this basic fact.

  1) How does intransitivity impact the logic of (perceptual) knowledge? If perceptual indiscriminability is directly taken to generate an accessiblity relation between epistemic alternatives, intransitivity will yield failure of positive introspection: my knowing that p is not sufficient for my knowing that I know p.

  2) Where does intransitivity come from? Telling whether two shades or color are identical or categorizing a shade of color as orange or red can be construed as a decision task. Why does decision lead to intransitivity? Can we build psychologically plausible models of the inexactness of our perceptual knowledge.

  In connection with 1), I will argue that introspection can be recovered on intransitive models. In connection with 2), I will show how signal detection theory can provide the basis for fine-grained logical models.

  The talk is based on a series of papers co-authored with Paul Egré. In particular,

  "Knowing one's limits", to appear in Dynamic Epistemology: Contemporary Perspectives, O. Roy, P. Girard and M. Marion (eds) (accesible online from here) and section 4 of "Vagueness, Uncertainty and Degrees of Clarity" forthcoming in Synthese (accesible online from there)

• 12/3: Jesper Carlström Formal logic in railway signalling applications
  Prover Technology AB applies formal logic to design and verification of railway signalling systems. The main product is Prover iLock, a Windows program with a graphical user interface that allows a signalling engineer to define a railyard by drawing tracks with the mouse, and then automatically generate an interlocking system that can also be formally verified in the same tool, or by an independent tool. I will outline the process and discuss the problems encountered when academic ideas meet the down-to-earth demands of our customers.

  (Jesper doktorerade i matematik (logik) för Per Martin-Löf vid Stockholms universitet. Han disputerade 2005 och är nu utvecklingsledare på Prover för logikspråket PiSPEC. Detta används för att specificera logiken i ställverkssystem.

• 26/3: Jan Smith Hume, Kant, Darwin, and the rules of logic
  Hume's crucial observation that there is no direct evidence for causality
  opens up for an evolutionary understanding of causality. I will also argue
  that in an evolutionary perspective, the rules of logic play a similar role
  as causality.I will not rely on any result in biology, except that the
  gene-centered view of evolution has in general broadened the scope of
  evolutionary explanations. Rather, I will corroborate my claims by Kant's
  view on causality and Aristotle's on the rules of logic.
• 9/4: Dag Westerståhl Compositionality and Context
• 30/4: Denis Bonnay TBA
• 7/5: Aarne Ranta TBA
• 21/5: Fredrik Engström Borelkvantorer och logiska konstanter
• 4/6: Martin Kaså TBA