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Symposium on Computational Philosophy, Birmingham (U.K.), July 2012

Call for Papers: Symposium on Computational Philosophy

  To be held as part of the

  AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012

in honour of Alan Turing

  July 2nd to 6th, 2012

University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

  http://events.cs.bham.ac.uk/turing12/ or via
http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb12/

Organized by

  The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence

and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB)

[http://www.aisb.org.uk/]

  and

  The International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP)

[http://www.ia-cap.org/]


Computational philosophy uses computational techniques to assist
philosophical discovery and provide evidence for philosophical positions
that may not be easily found by traditional philosophical methods alone. It
involves an array of techniques including standard computer programing,
artificial intelligence, computer modeling, agent-based modeling, network
analysis and ontology construction. Its philosophical targets cut across
almost all branches of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology and
axiology, along with various specialized domains such as the philosophies
of science, mind, technology, social and political philosophy, the history
of philosophy, etc.

We invite papers that use computational techniques to acquire insight into
any aspect of philosophy. We are not here so much interested in broader
methodological questions that such techniques raise. Rather, for this
symposium, we are interested in papers that deal with the actual
application of computer-assisted discovery in philosophy.

Sample topics include, but are not limited to, using computers to

    - Simplify canonical philosophical arguments
    - Understand idea propagation in evidenced-based epistemology
    - Understand and clarify processes of belief-revision and/or prejudice
    reduction
    - Understand cognitive processes to illuminate theories in the
philosophyof mind
    - Model ethical theories to test their viability or assist in ethical
    decision making
    - Model philosophical theories more generally for comparative purposes
    - Provide insight into the process of human and/or machine creativity

Submissions should be limited to 3,000 words (excluding references). Please
email a copy of your paper suitable for blind review in PDF format (APA
style) to the symposium program chair, Anthony Beavers, at
afbeavers@gmail.com. Accepted papers will be presented on July 2nd and 3rd
as part of the AISB/IACAP 2012 World Congress.

    - Submission Deadline: 1 February 2012
    - Decisions: 1 March 2012
    - Final Copy Due: 30 March 2012

This CFP and further symposium details will be available on our website as
they become available.
See http://digitalhumanities.evansville.edu/computational philosophy/.

Keynote Speakers

Edward N. Zalta (Stanford University)

Paul Oppenheimer (Stanford University)

Program Committee

Anthony Beavers (University of Evansville), Chair

Patrick Grim (SUNY, Stony Brook)

Chris Menzel (Texas A&M)

Vincent C. Müller (Anatolia College / Oxford University)

Matthias Scheutz (Tufts University)

Orlin Vakarelov (University of Arizona)

Proceedings

There will be separate proceedings for each symposium at the AISB/IACAP
World Congress, produced beforehand. Each delegate at the Congress will
receive, on arrival, a memory stick containing the proceedings of all
symposia.

About the AISB/IACAP 2012 World Congress

The Congress serves both as the year's AISB Convention and the year's IACAP
conference.  The Congress has been inspired by a desire to honour Alan
Turing, and by the broad and deep significance of Turing's work to AI, to
the philosophical ramifications of computing, and to philosophy and
computing more generally. The Congress is one of the events forming the
Alan Turing Year (http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/).

The intent of the Congress is to stimulate a particularly rich interchange
between AI and Philosophy on any areas of mutual interest, whether directly
addressing Turing's own research output or not.

The Congress will consist mainly of a number of collocated Symposia on
specific research areas, interspersed with Congress-wide refreshment
breaks, social events and invited Plenary Talks. All papers other than the
invited Plenaries will be given within Symposia.
  ---- End CFP

-- 
Anthony F. Beavers, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Director of Cognitive Science and the Digital Humanities Laboratory
The University of Evansville
http://faculty.evansville.edu/tb2/

President, International Association for Computing and Philosophy
http://ia-cap.org