8 April 2011
Utrecht, The Netherlands
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SYMPOSIUM LOGIC & CULTURE
APRIL 8, 2011, Utrecht
VVL
De Nederlandse Vereniging voor Logica &
Wijsbegeerte der Exacte Wetenschappen
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We are happy to invite you for the Symposium Logic and Culture organized
by the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Logica and Wijsbegeerte der Exacte
Wetenschappen (VVL).
Symposium Logic & Culture
Friday April 8, 2011, 11.00--17.00
Hoog Brabant, Utrecht (http://www.hoogbrabant.nl/)
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~femke/lc2011.html
The speakers of the Symposium are:
Dov Gabbay (King's College London, UK)
Sara Uckelman (UvA)
Michiel Leezenberg (UvA)
Henk Barendregt (RU)
In addition, we will have the general meeting of the VVL. It is possible
to participate in the organized lunch, for which registration is required.
Please register no later then April 6, 2011, with Ms Caroline Waij
(cpwaij@few.vu.nl or 020-5983563).
Please find the full program and abstracts of the lectures below.
Kind regards
Balder ten Cate
Vincent van Oostrom
Femke van Raamsdonk
Elias Thijsse
Rineke Verbrugge
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PROGRAM OF THE SYMPOSIUM LOGIC & CULTURE, APRIL 8 2011
10.30-11.00: Arrival with Coffee
11.00-12.00: Speaker: Dov Gabbay (King's College London, UK)
Title: Future Oriented Determination of Entities
in Talmudic Logic
12.00-13.00: Lunch and general meeting
13.00-14.00: Speaker: Sara Uckelman (UvA)
Title: Logic and Interaction in the Middle Ages
14.00-14.30 Tea and coffee
14.30-15.30 Michiel Leezenberg (UvA)
15.30-16.00 Tea and coffee
16.00-17.00 Speaker: Henk Barendregt (RU)
Title: Attention to consciousness and corollaries
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Abstracts of the talks of the Symposium Logic & Culture
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11.00--12.00
Speaker: Dov Gabbay (King's College London, UK)
Title: Future Oriented Determination of Entities in Talmudic Logic
Abstract:
Ordinary dynamic action logics deal with states and actions
upon states. The actions can be deterministic or
non-deterministic, but it is always assumed that thepossible
results of the actions are clear cut. Talmudic logic deals
with actions (usually legally meaningful actions which can
change the legal status of an entity) which may be not clear
cut and need clarifications. The clarification is modelled
by public announcement which comes at a later time after
the action has taken place. The model is further complicated
by the need to know what is the status of formulas at a time
before the results of the action is clarified, as we do not
know at which state we are in. Talmudic logic treats such
states much like the quantum superposition of states and
when clarification is available we get a projection onto
a pure state. The Talmudic lack of clarity of actions arises
from applying an action to entities defined using the future,
like `Let the man who will win the jackpot in lottery next
week be the sole heir in my will now'. We need to wait a
week for the situation to clarify. There is also the problem
of legal backwards causality, as this man, if indeed he exists,
unaware of his possible good fortune, may have himself meanwhile
donated all his property to a charity. This paper will offer
a model and a logic which can represent faithully the Talmudic
reasoning in these matters. We shall also see that we get new
types of public announcement and quantum action logics.
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12.00--13.00
Lunch and general meeting
Agenda:
0. Opening
1. Verslag vorige ALV
2. Bestuurssamenstelling
3. Financieen
4. Activiteiten verleden en toekomst
5. Rondvraag
6. Sluiting
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13.00--14.00
Speaker: Sara Uckelman (UvA)
Title: Logic and Interaction in the Middle Ages
Abstract:
Logic is traditionally viewed as a single-person enterprise,
with "logician" conjuring up images of an academic sitting
alone at his desk, scribbling proofs and theorems on a piece
of paper. But recently, there has been a shift in emphasis
in logic research from static, monological systems to dynamic,
dialogical systems, where logical reasoning is a type of
interaction between two or more players in a game. This idea
is, however, not new: This interactive approach to logic and
inference was the focus of one of the primary innovations of
logicians in the High Middle Ages (13th-15th C) in Western
Europe. We discuss the role of logic in medieval society,
both academic and ecclesiastic, and introduce medieval theories
of obligationes, a type of logical disputation game, to
illustrate the dialogical and multi-player character of logic
in the Middle Ages.
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14.30--15.30
Speaker: Michiel Leezenberg (UvA)
Title: Logic in Islamitic Thought
Abstract: In classical Islamic civilization, logic knew some
gifted students, and had ardent supporters as well as fierce
opponents. In this contribution, I will briefly discuss the
changing character and status of logic in the premodern Muslim
world. Peripatetic philosophers made great efforts towards
further refining Aristotelian syllogistic; but there was
also an anti-Aristotelian undercurrent basing itself on the
Stoic-inspired logic that could be found in speculative
theology (kal?m) and jurisprudence (fiqh). Inspired by this
undercurrent, the twelfth-century thinker
Shih?b al-D?n al- Suhraward? developed a notion of `knowledge
by presence'(`ilm al-hud?r?'), which displays some intriguing
similarities with David Kaplan's notion of direct reference.
I will conclude with some observations of logic's Werdegang
in the Muslim world. Conventional wisdom has it that logic,
along with philosophy and the natural sciences, disappeared
from the Islamic in the thirteenth century at the latest;
but in fact, Aristotelian syllogistic continued to be studied
by religious scholars for many centuries; and in the Shi-F?ite -A
world, it never disappeared at all. Recent research suggests
that the demise of interest in logic in the Sunni world is,
in fact, of a very recent date.
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16.00--17.00
Henk Barendregt (RU)
Title: Attention to consciousness and corollaries
Abstract: This talk is about what is arguably the essence
of Buddhism. Consciousness always has an object and a state.
Like for Turing Machines, the state is of essential
importance: it determines what is our behaviour, the next
object, and next state. There are positive and negative
states, depending whether suffering decreases or increases.
Meditation has as goal to improve states, either by
increasing positive states (concentration meditation) or
by decreasing negative states (insight meditation).
The way to reach this is by increasing attention in the
form of concentration, the ability keep focussed on an
object, and mindfulness, the ability to know where our
attention is. One milestone of insight meditation consists
of being able to see that consciousness is a discrete
(pulsating) deterministic process. This goes against our
belief in agency, the illusion that we are in control of
things. As a result the practitioner precieves fear, danger,
and disenchantment. The next milestone, requiring work, is
to obtain temporary equanimity about the mentioned phenomena.
After that the next milestone, obtained though 'surrendering',
is to see that our clinging to agency is unnecessary.
There is nothing to defend, as agency is an illusion.
This has far reaching consequences for our being in the
world. It increases peace, with oneself, others and the
universe. The reason for this is that without the need to
defend the non-existing agency, provides a considerably
increased degree of freedom. As further corollaries there
are insights in the scientific view on consciousness.
It unifies the Simon-Newell and connectionist views on
intelligence. Moreover, it has led to a better understanding
of the role of the cerebrospinal fluid for mind states.
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