21-22 Aug 2014
Oxford, U.K.
Call for papers
Arthur Prior Centenary Conference
Balliol College, Oxford, 21 ? 22 August, 2014
A two-day Centenary Conference will be held at Balliol College, Oxford, on
21 22 August 2014, in order to celebrate the contributions of Arthur
Norman Prior (1914-1969), and to showcase logical, philosophical,
mathematical and computational research concerned with, or inspired by,
Prior?s work. A lasting outcome of the conference will be a volume of the
papers presented at Balliol.
Background
A. N. Prior was born on 4 December 1914 in Masterton, New Zealand. He
studied philosophy in New Zealand in the Thirties and was a significant
and often provocative voice in New Zealand theological debates at this
time and also well into the Forties. In 1946, he became a lecturer in
philosophy at Canterbury University College in Christchurch, New Zealand,
and then Professor there in 1949. In 1959 he moved to a chair of
philosophy at Manchester University, then he moved to Oxford where he
became a fellow of Balliol College in 1965. Prior died on 6 October 1969
in Trondheim, Norway. Prior contributed to the debates about numerous
philosophical issues but is best known for his logic of time - or tense
logic, as he himself preferred to call it, although temporal logic has now
become the most common designation of the discipline. Prior established
and developed his temporal logic from 1953 until his death in 1969. Within
the last two decades, the importance of his achievements in temporal logic
have been recognized, and Prior has found his place as one of the great
logicians of the Twentieth Century. It has also been increasingly
recognized that Prior made other highly original contributions, whose
importance has been overshadowed by his invention of temporal logic. These
include contributions to theology, especially the problem of
predestination, and to the philosophy of ethics, and his invention of one
of the most important disciplines in logic today, hybrid logic. The
diversity of these contributions notwithstanding, one red thread runs
through all Prior?s work: the study of time and its logic. (See more on
Prior?s life and philosophy here:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/prior/)
The Virtual Lab for Prior Studies
A website for Prior Studies is available at http://research.prior.aau.dk.
This website serves as a portal to Prior?s papers in the Bodleian Library
and elsewhere, as well as supplying notes on some of the papers and an
introduction to Prior?s life and work, including a curriculum vitae and a
comprehensive bibliography. Work is in progress to digitize and so make
readily available on the web as much of Prior's unpublished work as
possible. The latest version of the Prior site will be officially launched
at the Centenary Conference.
The Virtual Lab for Prior Studies makes material in Prior?s Nachlass
available to researchers who aim to contribute to the Centenary
Conference. Researchers who are considering submitting a paper for the
Centenary Conference are most welcome to join The Virtual Lab for Prior
Studies.
Submissions
Papers are invited for the Arthur Prior Centenary Conference. Topics
include but are not limited to the following:
Prior?s contributions to temporal logic
Prior?s contributions to hybrid logic
Prior on tense logic and indeterminism
Prior?s presentism
Prior?s early work on theology and ethics
The development and use of Prior?s ideas in computer science and the
information sciences In general, authors are invited to submit papers
relating to all aspects of Prior?s work. Submissions discussing papers in
Prior?s Nachlass will be of especial interest. Papers accepted for, or
under review by, journals or other conferences should not be submitted to
the Arthur Prior Centenary Conference. Initial submission of an extended
abstract (3-5 pages) will be through EasyChair. All abstracts will be peer
reviewed. All accepted papers will be presented at the conference and may
subsequently be published in a high profile volume.
Deadlines
August 12, 2013: Extended abstracts (3-5 pages) in PDF format submitted via https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=anp2014.
Sept. 16, 2013: Notification of the outcome of the review process.
Conference organization
The conference will take place at Balliol College, Oxford. There will be
rooms for up to 60 attendees available in College, at a discounted rate,
from August 20-23, 2014 (3 nights). Prices and further information
regarding registration etc. will appear soon. The conference is supported
by Balliol College, and sponsored by The Royal School of Library and
Information Science, Copenhagen University, University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand, and Aalborg University, Denmark.
Conference web-site:
http://conference.prior.aau.dk
Conference programme committee
Professor Dr. Per Hasle, The Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen University, Denmark (General Chair)
Professor Dr. Jack Copeland, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand (New Zealand Chair)
Professor Dr. Peter hrstrm, Aalborg University, Denmark (Program Chair)
Professor Dr. Thomas Mller, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Professor Dr. Thomas Ploug, Aalborg University, Denmark
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