MCMP – Mathematical Philosophy (Archive 2011/12)
250 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 6 ratingsMathematical Philosophy - the application of logical and mathematical methods in philosophy - is about to experience a tremendous boom in various areas of philosophy. At the new Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, which is funded mostly by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, philosophical research will be carried out mathematically, that is, by means of methods that are very close to those used by the scientists.
The purpose of doing philosophy in this way is not to reduce philosophy to mathematics or to natural science in any sense; rather mathematics is applied in order to derive philosophical conclusions from philosophical assumptions, just as in physics mathematical methods are used to derive physical predictions from physical laws.
Nor is the idea of mathematical philosophy to dismiss any of the ancient questions of philosophy as irrelevant or senseless: although modern mathematical philosophy owes a lot to the heritage of the Vienna and Berlin Circles of Logical Empiricism, unlike the Logical Empiricists most mathematical philosophers today are driven by the same traditional questions about truth, knowledge, rationality, the nature of objects, morality, and the like, which were driving the classical philosophers, and no area of traditional philosophy is taken to be intrinsically misguided or confused anymore. It is just that some of the traditional questions of philosophy can be made much clearer and much more precise in logical-mathematical terms, for some of these questions answers can be given by means of mathematical proofs or models, and on this basis new and more concrete philosophical questions emerge. This may then lead to philosophical progress, and ultimately that is the goal of the Center.
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Episodes
Mally's Deontic Logic (1926)
October 16, 2012 00:04 - 15 minutes - 131 MB VideoGert-Jan C. Lokhorst (Delft) gives a talk at the MCMP Formal Ethics Workshop (11-13 October, 2012) titled "Mally's Deontic Logic (1926)".
Toward a Formal Framework for Some Fundamental Common Moral Statuses
October 16, 2012 00:03 - 39 minutes - 325 MB VideoPaul McNamara (New Hampshire) gives a talk at the MCMP Formal Ethics Workshop (11-13 October, 2012) titled "Toward a Formal Framework for Some Fundamental Common Moral Statuses".
Common Law Reasoning
October 16, 2012 00:02 - 52 minutes - 437 MB VideoJohn Horty (University of Maryland) gives a talk at the MCMP Formal Ethics Workshop (11-13 October, 2012) titled "Common Law Reasoning".
Weighting Evaluations
September 20, 2012 01:11 - 59 minutes - 494 MB VideoConrad Heilmann (Rotterdam) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (4 July, 2012) titled "Weighting Evaluations". Abstract: This paper discusses two approaches to weighting numerical evaluations. We start by assuming that we have obtained numerical evaluations of some type of object, such as a utility function that represents preferences over acts. We then ask how we can weight these evaluations and identify two approaches. One approach, called the probability approach, derives a separate measur...
Bayesian Conditioning Revisited
September 20, 2012 00:54 - 1 hour - 588 MB VideoRichard Bradley (LSE) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (27 June, 2012) titled "Bayesian Conditioning Revisited". Abstract: Bayesian conditioning is widely regarded as the correct way to revise your degrees of belief in circumstances in which experience leads you to believe, with certainty, that some proposition is true. But different revision rules have been proposed for other types of experience: for example, Jeffrey conditioning when your degrees of belief for some set of propositions ch...
The Aletheic Paradoxes and Semantic Relativism
September 19, 2012 01:15 - 54 minutes - 454 MB VideoKevin Sharp (The Ohio State University) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (12 July 2012) about the aletheic paradoxes and semantic relativism. Abstract: I propose a solution to the aletheic paradoxes (e.g., the liar, Curry, and Yablo) on which truth predicates are assessment-sensitive. Truth is not an antecedently plausible topic for a semantic relativist treatment; nevertheless, the aletheic paradoxes give us good reason to think that truth is an inconsistent concept, and there are good r...
Constructive Decision Theory
September 19, 2012 01:14 - 1 hour - 709 MB VideoJoe Halpern (Cornell University) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (11 July, 2012) titled "Constructive Decision Theory" (joint work with Larry Blume and David Easley, Cornell). Abstract: The standard approach in decision theory (going back to Savage) is to place a preference order on acts, where an act is a function from states to outcomes. If the preference order satisfies appropriate postulates, then the decision maker can be viewed as acting as if he has a probability on states and a ut...
How the market gives us what we want - even if we are irrational
September 19, 2012 01:13 - 58 minutes - 483 MB VideoRobert Sugden (UEA) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (5 July, 2012) titled "How the market gives us what we want - even if we are irrational".
Representation and Interpretation in Computational Philosophy
September 19, 2012 00:53 - 1 hour - 601 MB VideoPaul E. Oppenheimer (Stanford) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (21 June, 2012) titled "Representation and Interpretation in Computational Philosophy".
If You Must Do Confirmation Theory - Do It This Way
September 19, 2012 00:52 - 1 hour - 544 MB VideoDavid Miller (Warwick) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (21 June, 2012) titled "If You Must Do Confirmation Theory - Do It This Way". Abstract: In this talk I begin to draw together, and package into a coherent philosophical position, a number of ideas that in the last 25 years I have alluded to, or sometimes stated explicitly, concerning the properties and the merits of the measure of deductive dependence q(c|a) of one proposition c on another proposition a; that is, the measure to which...
A Copernican Revolution for Modal Fictionalism
September 19, 2012 00:51 - 49 minutes - 409 MB VideoCharles B. Cross (University of Georgia) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (20 June, 2012) titled "A Copernican Revolution for Modal Fictionalism". Abstract: According to Modal Fictionalism, the analysans in the possible-worlds analysis of a modal claim should be understood as occurring within the scope of a (normally untokened) story operator or prefix. Placing a piece of discourse behind a story prefix, on this view, cancels any commitment to the existence of items postulated by the "stor...
Moral Judgments and Decisions in Trolley Problems
September 19, 2012 00:49 - 50 minutes - 421 MB VideoNatalie Gold (King's College London) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (11 July, 2012) titled "Moral Judgments and Decisions in Trolley Problems". Abstract: Hypothetical dilemmas, such as trolley problems, are used by philosophers and psychologists in order to probe intuitions about whether it is morally permissible to harm one person in order to prevent a greater harm to others. The dilemmas usually involve life and death decisions. I report the results of an experiment using hypothetical ...
Homotopy Type Theory and Univalent Foundations of Mathematics
September 19, 2012 00:48 - 1 hour - 524 MB VideoSteve Awodey (CMU/MCMP) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (13 June, 2012) titled "Homotopy Type Theory and Univalent Foundations of Mathematics". Abstract: Recent advances in foundations of mathematics have led to some developments that are significant for the philosophy of mathematics, particularly structuralism. The discovery of an interpretation of constructive type theory into homotopy theory suggests a new approach to the foundations of mathematics with both intrinsic geometric content...
Multiple Realization and the Computational Mind
September 19, 2012 00:47 - 53 minutes - 446 MB VideoPaul Schweizer (Edinburgh) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (11 July, 2012) titled "Multiple Realization and the Computational Mind". Abstract: The paper addresses a standard line of criticism of the Computational Theory of Mind, based on the claim that realizing a computational formalism is overly liberal to the point of vacuity. In agreement with the underlying view of computation used to support this criticism, I argue that computation is not an intrinsic property of physical systems, b...
Everything is knowable
September 18, 2012 01:00 - 1 hour - 558 MB VideoHans van Ditmarsch (University of Sevilla) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (23 May, 2012) titled "Everything is knowable". Abstract: Dynamic epistemic logics are modal logics of knowledge (and belief) change, with modal epistemic operators to describe knowledge and dynamic modal operators to describe change of knowledge. In such a logic we can analyze the Moore-sentence, 'p is true but you don't know that p is true', and also the Fitch-paradox. 'everything is knowable' is inconsistent wit...
Ought Implies Can, Omission and Probabilistic Deliberative STIT
September 18, 2012 00:11 - 1 hour - 645 MB VideoRoberto Ciuni (RUB) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (24 May, 2012) titled "Ought Implies Can, Omission and Probabilistic Deliberative STIT". Abstract: STIT logics are prominent formal settings for modelling the interaction among agents. Remarkably, they endorse some basic game-theoretical notion, most notably alpha-effectivity: the moves of one agent are independent from the ones of any other agent. This is in turn reflected in the semantics of the deliberative stit operator [a : X], whic...
"New Foundations" and Consistency
September 18, 2012 00:09 - 50 minutes - 421 MB VideoThomas Forster (Cambridge) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (16 May, 2012) about Quine's "New Foundations". Abstract: There are rumours circulating that Quine's axiomatic set theory "New Foundations" has been proved consistent. If these rumours are correct the set theoretic landscape will have its most radical revamp for more than half a century, and we will all need to re-tool. This talk will provide historical background and glimpse into how the result might be proved.
Modeling the Coevolution of Theory and Language
September 18, 2012 00:08 - 49 minutes - 412 MB VideoJeff Barrett (UC Irvine) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (10 May, 2012) titled "Modeling the Coevolution of Theory and Language". Abstract: Skyrms-Lewis sender-receiver games with invention allow one to model how a simple mathematical language might be invented and become meaningful as its use coevolves with the basic arithmetic competence of primitive mathematical inquirers. Such models provide sufficient conditions for the invention and evolution of a very basic sort of arithmetic langu...
Assumptions of Infinity
September 18, 2012 00:07 - 57 minutes - 475 MB VideoKarl-Georg Niebergall (HU Berlin) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (3 May, 2012) titled "Assumptions of Infinity". Abstract: I present different attempts of explicating "theory T makes an assumption of infinity" and consider their consequences.
Dynamic Ontology
September 18, 2012 00:03 - 1 hour - 522 MB VideoCameron Buckner (Bochum) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (26 April, 2012) titled "Dynamic Ontology". Abstract: A computational ontology is a formally-encoded specification of the concepts relevant to a subject domain (including their properties and relations holding between them) and a hierarchical classification of those concepts into categories and subcategories. Such representations can support a variety of tasks and tools which require semantic knowledge of domain resources. The sta...
Value Relations Revisited
September 18, 2012 00:02 - 53 minutes - 440 MB VideoWlodek Rabinowicz (Lund) gives a talk at the MCMP colloquium (24 April, 2012) titled "Value Relations Revisited". Abstract: In Rabinowicz 2008, I considered how value relations can best be analyzed in terms of fitting pro-attitudes. In the formal model of that paper, fitting pro-attitudes were represented by the class of permissible preference orderings on a domain of items that are being compared. As it turns out, this approach opens up for a multiplicity of different types of value relation...
First-Order Extensions of Classical Modal Logic
September 16, 2012 00:45 - 56 minutes - 469 MB VideoEric Pacuit (University of Maryland) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "First-Order Extensions of Classical Modal Logic". Abstract: The paper focuses on extending to the first order case the semantical program for modalities first introduced by Dana Scott and Richard Montague. We focus on the study of neighborhood frames with constant domains and we offer a series of new completeness results for salient classical systems of first order m...
Comments on Julia Staffel's "Should I Pretend I'm Perfect?"
September 16, 2012 00:44 - 17 minutes - 149 MB VideoMatthew Kotzen (UNC) comments on Julia Staffel's "Should I Pretend I'm Perfect?" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Should I pretend I'm perfect?
September 16, 2012 00:43 - 30 minutes - 257 MB VideoJulia Staffel (USC) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Should I pretend I'm perfect?".
The Theory of Probability Cores in Bayesian Epistemology and Decision Theory
September 16, 2012 00:42 - 44 minutes - 367 MB VideoArthur Paul Pedersen (CMU) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "The Theory of Probability Cores in Bayesian Epistemology and Decision Theory".
Comments on Wolfgang Schwarz's "Lost Memories and Useless Coins"
September 16, 2012 00:41 - 23 minutes - 199 MB VideoMike Titelbaum (University of Wisconsin) comments on Wolfgang Schwarz's "Lost Memories and Useless Coins" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Lost memories and useless coins: Revisiting the absentminded driver
September 16, 2012 00:40 - 50 minutes - 422 MB VideoWolfgang Schwarz (ANU) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Lost memories and useless coins: Revisiting the absentminded driver".
Influencing Behavior by Influencing Knowledge
September 16, 2012 00:39 - 53 minutes - 443 MB VideoRohit Parikh (CUNY) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Influencing Behavior by Influencing Knowledge".
Comments on Hans Rott's "Two concepts of plausibility in default reasoning"
September 16, 2012 00:38 - 15 minutes - 131 MB VideoDavid Etlin (Groningen) comments on Hans Rott's "Two concepts of plausibility in default reasoning" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Two concepts of plausibility in default reasoning
September 16, 2012 00:37 - 46 minutes - 387 MB VideoHans Rott (Regensburg) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Two concepts of plausibility in default reasoning".
Logic & Rationality
September 16, 2012 00:36 - 54 minutes - 448 MB VideoGila Sher (UCSD) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Logic & Rationality".
Inductive Logic (Part 2)
September 16, 2012 00:35 - 1 hour - 510 MB VideoJeff Paris (Manchester) gives the second part of his tutorial "Inductive Logic" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Comments on Michael Morreau's "From Social Choice to Theory Choice"
September 16, 2012 00:34 - 18 minutes - 151 MB VideoMark Colyvan (Sidney) comments on Michael Morreau's "From Social Choice to Theory Choice" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
From Social Choice to Theory Choice
September 16, 2012 00:33 - 53 minutes - 440 MB VideoMichael Morreau (University of Maryland) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "From Social Choice to Theory Choice". Abstract: Arrow's theorem of social choice (Arrow 1951) has been thought to limit the possibilities for choosing rationally among rival scientific theories on the basis of their accuracy, simplicity, scope and other relevant criteria. It does not. Possible orderings of theories by these criteria are so severely restricted tha...
Aggregating value judgments
September 16, 2012 00:32 - 54 minutes - 450 MB VideoWlodek Rabinowicz (Lund) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Aggregating value judgments" (joint work with Stephan Hartmann and Soroush Rafiee Rad).
Comments on Mark Jago's "Bounded Rationality and Epistemic Blindspots"
September 16, 2012 00:31 - 14 minutes - 119 MB VideoRachael Briggs (ANU) comments on Mark Jago's "Bounded Rationality and Epistemic Blindspots" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Bounded Rationality and Epistemic Blindspots
September 16, 2012 00:30 - 46 minutes - 383 MB VideoAbstract: Real-world agents do not know all consequences of what they know. But we are reluctant to say that a rational agent can fail to know some trivial consequence of what she knows. Since every consequence of what she knows can be reached via chains of trivial consequences of what she knows, we have a paradox. In this paper, I respond to the paradox in three stages. (i) I describe formal models which allow us to draw a distinction, at the level of content, between trivial (uninformative)...
A dialogical, multi-agent account of the normativity of logic
September 16, 2012 00:29 - 46 minutes - 387 MB VideoCatarina Dutilh Novaes (Groningen) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "A dialogical, multi-agent account of the normativity of logic".
Inductive Logic (Part 1)
September 16, 2012 00:28 - 1 hour - 564 MB VideoJeff Paris (Manchester) gives the first part of his tutorial "Inductive Logic" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Comments on Alan Hájek's "Staying Regular?"
September 16, 2012 00:27 - 23 minutes - 192 MB VideoThomas Hofweber (UNC) comments on Alan Hájek's "Staying Regular?" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Staying Regular?
September 16, 2012 00:26 - 46 minutes - 384 MB VideoAlan Hájek (ANU) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Staying Regular?".
Comments on Ben Levinstein's "Leitgeb and Pettigrew on Accuracy and Updating"
September 16, 2012 00:24 - 12 minutes - 106 MB VideoChris Meacham (University of Massachusetts) comments on Ben Levinstein's "Leitgeb and Pettigrew on Accuracy and Updating" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Leitgeb and Pettigrew on Accuracy and Updating
September 16, 2012 00:23 - 30 minutes - 252 MB VideoBen Levinstein (Rutgers) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Leitgeb and Pettigrew on Accuracy and Updating". Abstract: Leitgeb and Pettigrew (2010) argue that (1) agents should minimize the expected inaccuracy of their beliefs, and (2) inaccuracy should be measured via the Brier score. They show that in certain diachronic cases, these claims require an alternative to Jeffrey-Conditionalization. I claim that this alternative is an irratio...
Hyperreals and Their Applications (Part 2)
September 16, 2012 00:21 - 1 hour - 671 MB VideoSylvia Wenmackers (Groningen) gives the second part of her tutorial "Hyperreals and Their Applications" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012). Abstract: Hyperreal numbers are an extension of the real numbers, which contain infinitesimals and infinite numbers. The set of hyperreal numbers is denoted by *�R or R*�; in these notes, I opt for the former notation, as it allows us to read the �*-symbol as the prefix 'hyper-'. Just like standard analysis (or calculus)...
Comments on "The No Alternatives Argument" (Dawid, Hartmann, Sprenger)
September 16, 2012 00:20 - 15 minutes - 128 MB VideoFrederik Herzberg (Bielefeld, MCMP/LMU) comments on "The No Alternatives Argument" (by Richard Dawid, Stephan Hartmann, and Jan Sprenger) at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
The No Alternatives Argument
September 16, 2012 00:19 - 39 minutes - 326 MB VideoJan Sprenger (Tilburg) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "The No Alternatives Argument" (joint work with Richard Dawid and Stephan Hartmann). Abstract: Scientific theories are hard to find, and once scientists have found a theory H, they often believe that there cannot be many distinct alternatives to H. But is this belief justied? What should scientists believe about the number of alternatives to H, and how should they change these beli...
Comments on Lara Buchak's "Risk and Tradeoffs"
September 16, 2012 00:17 - 24 minutes - 200 MB VideoBrad Armendt (ASU) comments on Lara Buchak's "Risk and Tradeoffs" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).
Risk and Tradeoffs
September 16, 2012 00:16 - 37 minutes - 308 MB VideoLara Buchak (Berkeley) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Risk and Tradeoffs".
Epistemic Modesty Defended
September 16, 2012 00:15 - 43 minutes - 360 MB VideoDavid Christensen (Brown University) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "Epistemic Modesty Defended".
Hyperreals and Their Applications
September 16, 2012 00:14 - 1 hour - 663 MB VideoSylvia Wenmackers (Groningen) gives the first part of her tutorial "Hyperreals and Their Applications" at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012). Abstract: Hyperreal numbers are an extension of the real numbers, which contain infinitesimals and infinite numbers. The set of hyperreal numbers is denoted by *�R or R*�; in these notes, I opt for the former notation, as it allows us to read the �*-symbol as the prefix 'hyper-'. Just like standard analysis (or calculus) ...