Events

October 04, 2023, 6-8 PM (note special time) in 234 Philosophy

Stephan Hartmann (LMU Munich)

Bayesian Coherentism

Coherence considerations guide our reasoning in science and in daily life. But what is coherence anyway? And why is it a useful concept? While mainstream epistemology struggled to answer these questions, formal epistemologists made some progress beginning in the mid-1990s. For various reasons, this debate more or less came to a halt after about ten years. In this talk, I survey earlier attempts and propose a fresh look at the issue. In doing so, I have three goals: (1) To provide an explication of the concept of coherence. (2) To derive and defend a new measure of coherence. (3) To explore the question under what conditions, if any, coherence is truth-conducive. For this purpose, the Bayesian framework proves to be particularly useful. I conclude with a new assessment of the role of coherence considerations in scientific and ordinary reasoning, and a defense of a position I call Bayesian Coherentism. The talk is based on joint work with Borut Trpin (MCMP).

February 07, 2024, 6-8 PM (note special time) in 234 Philosophy

Matt Mandelkern (NYU)

The Logic of Sequences

In the course of proving a tenability result about the probabilities of conditionals, van Fraassen (1976) introduced a semantics for conditionals based on sequences of worlds, representing a particularly simple special case of ordering semantics for conditionals. According to sequence semantics, ‘If p, then q’ is true at a sequence just in case q is true at the longest truncation of the sequence where p is true (if there is one). This approach has become increasingly popular in recent years. However, its logic has never been explored. We axiomatize the logic of sequence semantics, showing that it strengthens the Stalnakerian logic C2 in two ways: one which is prima facie attractive, and one which is surprisingly complex and difficult to assess. (Joint work with Cian Dorr.)