Choice & Inference

6th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg conference on MODELS AND DECISIONS

Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

10-12 April 2013

www.lmu.de/ModelsAndDecisions2013

Mathematical and computational models are central to decision-making in a wide-variety of contexts in science and policy: They are used to assess the risk of large investments, to evaluate the merits of alternative medical therapies, and are often key in decisions on international policies – climate policy being one of the most prominent examples. In many of these cases, they assist in drawing conclusions from complex assumptions. While the value of these models is undisputed, their increasingly widespread use raises several philosophical questions: What makes scientific models so important? In which way do they describe, or even explain their target systems? What makes models so reliable? And: What are the imports, and the limits, of using models in policy making? This conference will bring together philosophers of science, economists, statisticians and policy makers to discuss these and related questions. Experts from a variety of field will exchange first-hand experience and insights in order to identify the assets and the pitfalls of model-based decision-making. The conference will also address and evaluate the increasing role of model-based research in scientific practice, both from a practical and from a philosophical point of view.

We invite submissions of extended abstracts of 1000 words by 15 December 2012. Decisions will be made by 15 January 2013.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Luc Bovens (LSE)
Itzhak Gilboa (Paris and Tel Aviv)
Ulrike Hahn (Birkbeck)
Michael Strevens (NYU) and
Claudia Tebaldi (UBC)

ORGANIZERS: Mark Colyvan, Paul Griffiths, Stephan Hartmann, Kaerin Nickelsen, Roland Poellinger, Olivier Roy, and Jan Sprenger

PUBLICATION: We plan to publish selected papers presented at the conference in a special issue of a journal or with a major a book publisher (subject to the usual refereeing process). The submission deadline is 1 July 2013. The maximal paper length is 7000 words.

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS: A few travel bursaries for graduate students are available (up to 500 Euro). See website for details.

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites applications for Fellowships supporting visits in the Center for a term or an academic year. For details see:

Postdoctoral Fellowship
Visiting Fellowship
Senior Visiting Fellowship

What’s it like?

John D. Norton, Director
Center for Philosophy of Science

Infinite Regress

Synthese

Call for Papers

Deadline July 1st, 2013

We are happy to invite submissions for “Infinite Regress,” a special issue to appear in Synthese, edited by Jeanne Peijnenburg and Sylvia Wenmackers of the University of Groningen.

The theme of the special issue is infinite regresses in various contexts, including epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, etc. The topic of infinite regress is old in philosophy, but recent developments in theoretical philosophy suggest that the time is right for new approaches to this ancient problem.

We invite novel contributions in which probabilistic models, logic, or other tools from contemporary formal philosophy are brought to bear on the problem of infinite regress. We are also interested in analyses of the relationship between aspects of traditional epistemology or metaphysics on the one hand and these technical results on the other hand.

Deadline for submissions: July 1st, 2013.

For more information, please see the website for the special issue:

www.sylviawenmackers.be/CFP/InfiniteRegress.html

Guest Editors.

Jeanne Peijnenburg
Sylvia Wenmackers

Submitted by Sylvia Wenmackers

Simon Huttegger, Associate Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of California, Irvine, will deliver a colloquium lecture, “Pattern Learning in Games,” on Thursday, October 4, 2012, at Carnegie Mellon University. With broad research interests in game and decision theory, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of science, Huttegger has become particularly interested in evolutionary game theory and the theory of learning in games.  Having earned an M.A. in philosophy at the Universität Salzburg under the direction of Georg Dorn, Huttegger continued his studies at the same university to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy under the supervision of Reinhard Kleinknecht, earning his doctorate in 2006 for his thesis, Language and Coordination.  In addition to Reinhard Kleinknecht, Huttegger’s thesis committee included Georg Dorn and Brian Skyrms.  What follows is an abstract of his lecture.

Philosophy Colloquium
Department of Philosophy
Carnegie Mellon University

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Reception.
4:00-4:35 pm   Doherty Hall 4301

Lecture.
4:45-6:00 pm   Baker Hall A53

As usual, all are invited to attend.

“Evolution, Learning, and Games“
October 6, 2012
Wean Hall 4625
Carnegie Mellon University

Sponsored by The Carnegie Mellon Center for Formal Epistemology

• 8:45 Introduction
• 9:00 Simon Huttegger (UC Irvine)
• Probe and Adjust
• 10:30 Brian Skyrms (UC Irvine)
• Learning Signaling Chains
• 12:00 Lunch
• 2:00 Rory Smead (Northeastern University)
• Two Evolutionary Models of Unconditional Spite
• 3:30 Russell Golman (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Basis of Attraction and Equilibrium Selection with Population Learning Dynamics
• 5:00 Final Thoughts

All are welcome to attend.

Open Rank, Tenure-Track or Tenured Position

Department of Philosophy
Carnegie Mellon University

Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor, as appropriate, beginning August 2013.

AOS: Formal Epistemology, Logic, or Rational Choice.
AOC: Open.

The Department welcomes applications from scholars in any discipline who pursue formal research that is philosophically motivated.

Responsibilities. Exemplary research and publication, teaching two courses per semester (4/yr), graduate student supervision, and some committee work.

Carnegie Mellon is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer with particular interest in identifying women, minority, individuals with disabilities and veteran applicants for faculty positions.

Deadline for applications is November 1, 2012. Applicants should electronically submit an application letter, C.V., description of research plans, research writing sample, and summary of teaching experience (preferably as a single PDF file) to:

phil-search@andrew.cmu.edu

For junior applicants, at least three confidential letters of reference should also be forwarded to this email address. Questions and inquiries may be directed to this email address as well.

5th Copenhagen Lund Workshop on Social Epistemology
Friday December 7 (and, possibly, Thursday Dec 6) 2012
Lund University, Sweden
tinyurl.com/bvgfmga

We invite abstracts on any topic in Social Epistemology (i.e., both formal and informal work) for presentation at the above workshop. The past four workshops have primarily dealt with formal models of belief polarization, information cascades, echo chambers, and pluralistic ignorance. Novel contributions addressing these themes will be treated with priority, likewise for results obtained from agent-based modeling.

To contribute, please submit a max 500 word abstract on or before 8 October 2012 at: tinyurl.com/cyo64y9
Following a blind review process, please expect decisions within two weeks.

Travel cost covered/subsidized, room and board provided.

Principal investigators
Erik J. Olsson (Lund) & Vincent F. Hendricks (Copenhagen)

Organizers
Frank Zenker & Carlo Proietti