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7th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg conference on Models and Decisions

10-12 Apr 2013
Munich, Germany

6th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg conference on

MODELS AND DECISIONS

Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

10-12 April 2013

http://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 a
  nd 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.