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Feb 21 Logic Colloquium: Eno Agolli2:00pm

Logic Colloquium: Eno Agolli

Friday, February 21st, 2020

02:00 PM - 03:30 PM

Storrs Campus
Oak 110

Join us for a talk by Éno Agolli (UConn) in the Logic Colloquium!

Éno Agolli (UConn)

Logical Nihilism

Logical nihilism is the view that there is no logic, or more precisely that no single, universal consequence relation governs natural language reasoning. Here, I present three different arguments for logical nihilism from philosophically palatable premises. The first argument comes from a combination of pluralism with the desideratum that logical consequence should be universal, properly understood. The second argument is a slippery slope argument against monists who support weak logical systems on account of their power to characterize a vast range of true theories. The third argument is a general strategy of generating counterexamples to any inference rule, including purportedly fundamental ones such as disjunction introduction. I close by discussing why a truth-conditional approach to the meaning of the logical connectives not only does not force us to reject such counterexamples but also reveals that right truth-conditions are far more general than the classical ones, at the price of nihilism.

All welcome!

https://logic.uconn.edu/calendar/

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Mar 13 Logic Colloquium: Ehtibar Dzhafarov (Purdue)2:00pm

Logic Colloquium: Ehtibar Dzhafarov (Purdue)

Friday, March 13th, 2020

02:00 PM - 03:30 PM

Storrs Campus
Humanities Institute Seminar Room (4th Floor Homer Babbidge Library)

Join us in the Logic Colloquium for a talk by psychologist Ehtibar Dzhafarov (Purdue, http://www.psych.purdue.edu/~ehtibar/ )

Contextual analysis, epistemic probabilities, and paradoxes

Abstract

Contextual analysis deals with systems of random variables. Each random variable within a system is labeled in two ways: by its content (that which the variable measures or responds to) and by its context (conditions under which it is recorded). Dependence of random variables on contexts is classified into (1) direct (causal) cross-influences and (2) purely contextual (non-causal) influences. The two can be conceptually separated from each other and measured in a principled way. The theory has numerous applications in quantum mechanics, and also in such areas as decision making and computer databases. A system of deterministic variables (as a special case of random variables) is always void of purely contextual influences. There are, however, situations when we know that a system is one of a set of deterministic systems, but we cannot know which one. In such situations we can assign epistemic (Bayesian) probabilities to possible deterministic systems, create thereby a system of epistemic random variables, and subject it to contextual analysis. In this way one can treat, in particular, such logical antinomies as the Liar paradox. The simplest systems of epistemic random variables describing the latter have no direct cross-influences and the maximal possible degree of purely contextual influences.

All welcome!

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Contact Information: https://logic.uconn.edu/about/
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Mar 27 Logic Colloquium: Paul McNamara (New Hampshire)2:00pm

Logic Colloquium: Paul McNamara (New Hampshire)

Friday, March 27th, 2020

02:00 PM - 03:30 PM

Storrs Campus
Humanities Institute Seminar Room (4th Floor Homer Babbidge Library)

Join us in the Logic Colloquium for a talk by Paul McNamara (New Hampshire)!

Details t.b.a.

All welcome!

https://logic.uconn.edu/calendar/

Contact Information: https://logic.uconn.edu/about/
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