The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
by
Pascal Engel (Université de Genève)
on
Oughty Thoughts
Tuesday, 18 March, 4.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
The thesis that mental content is normative is ambiguous and has many forms. I shall here deal only with the thesis that normativity is connected to our mental attitudes rather than with the content of the attitudes, and more specifically with the view that it is connected to belief. A number of writers have proposed various versions of a "norm of truth" attached to belief. I examine various versions of this claim, and defend it against recent criticisms according to which this norm lacks normative force, that is violates the principle that "ought" implies can", and that it is viciously circular. I defend the view that we should distinguish the statement of the objective norm and the way it is regulated, and that this distinction can answer most of the critisms of the norm of truth for belief.
Kriszta Biber
Department Coordinator
Philosophy Department
Tel: 36-1-327-3806
Fax: 36-1-327-3072
**** INNS Award nominations ****
INNS (International Neural Networks Society; http://www.inns.org)
has a well established awards program, designed to recognize
individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of
Neural Networks. Up to three awards, one in each of the following
categories, are presented annually at IJCNN to senior individuals
for outstanding contributions made to the field of Neural Networks.
The Hebb Award - recognizes achievement in biological learning.
The Helmholtz Award - recognizes achievement in sensation/perception.
The Gabor Award - recognizes achievement in engineering/application.
In addition, there is the Young Investigator Award: up to two awards
are presented annually to individuals with no more than five years
postdoctoral experience and who are under forty years of age, for
significant contributions in the field of Neural Networks.
The INNS Awards Committee is now inviting nominations for the 2009
Hebb, Helmholtz, and Gabor awards as well as the Young Investigator
awards. You can find the details of the nomination procedure on the INNS
Web page: http://www.inns.org; please click on "awards program".
I would urge you to think of highly qualified candidates and send in
formal nominations for them (see the INNS web page for the
instructions).
Please email the nominations (along with attachments) directly to the
chair of the Awards Committee at rsun(a)rpi.edu by May 1, 2008.
Ron Sun
Chair, Awards Committee
========================================================
Professor Ron Sun
Cognitive Science Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 Eighth Street, Carnegie 302A
Troy, NY 12180, USA
phone: 518-276-3409
fax: 518-276-3017
email: rsun(a)rpi.edu
web: http://www.cogsci.rpi.edu/~rsun
=======================================================
The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
by
Pascal Engel (Université de Genève)
on
Oughty Thoughts
Tuesday, 18 March, 4.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
The thesis that mental content is normative is ambiguous and has many forms. I shall here deal only with the thesis that normativity is connected to our mental attitudes rather than with the content of the attitudes, and more specifically with the view that it is connected to belief. A number of writers have proposed various versions of a "norm of truth" attached to belief. I examine various versions of this claim, and defend it against recent criticisms according to which this norm lacks normative force, that is violates the principle that "ought" implies can", and that it is viciously circular. I defend the view that we should distinguish the statement of the objective norm and the way it is regulated, and that this distinction can answer most of the critisms of the norm of truth for belief.
Kriszta Biber
Department Coordinator
Philosophy Department
Tel: 36-1-327-3806
Fax: 36-1-327-3072
E-mail: biberk(a)ceu.hu
THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY FORUM
Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Humanities, Eotvos University
Room 226 Monday 4:00 PM Muzeum krt. 4/i, Budapest
Web site: http://phil.elte.hu/tpf
17 March 4:00 PM Room 226
Christophe Heintz
Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research,
Altenberg, Austria
A cognitive history of calculus: how infinitesimals went to the limit
Abstract: http://phil.elte.hu/tpf/2007-2008/March/#3
___________________________________
The Forum is open to everyone, including students,visitors, and faculty
members from all departments and institutes!
Format: 60 minute lecture, 10 minute coffee break, followed by a 30-60
minute discussion. The language of presentation is English or Hungarian.
A printable poster is available from here:
http://phil.elte.hu/tpf/2007-2008/March/poster.pdf
Please feel free to post it in your institution!
The organizer of the Forum: Laszlo E. Szabo
(leszabo(a)phil.elte.hu)
--
L a s z l o E. S z a b o
Department of Logic, Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Humanities, Eotvos University, Budapest
http://phil.elte.hu/leszabo
The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
by
Øystein Linnebo (University of Bristol)
on
Ontological Minimalism
Tuesday, 11 March, 4.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
A number of philosophers have been attracted to the idea that the existence of certain kinds of objects is "cheap", in the sense that very little is required for there to be objects of the kind in question. For instance, Frege and neo-Fregeans hold that nothing more is required for the existence of directions than that there be lines standing in the
relation of parallelism; mathematical structuralists hold that nothing more is required for the existence of mathematical objects than that there could be concrete realizations of certain structures; and some metaphysicians hold that nothing more is required for the existence of mereological sums than that the relevant parts exist. I examine some problems with existing forms of ontological minimalism. Then I develop what I take to be a better form of the view, based on an assimilation of objects to semantic values and a minimalist account of what is required for an expression to have a semantic value.
Kriszta Biber
Department Coordinator
Philosophy Department
Tel: 36-1-327-3806
Fax: 36-1-327-3072
Kedves Kollégák!
Mellékelem a következő Kognitív Péntekre - március 14-ére - szóló
meghívót!
Üdvözlettel:
HZS
Horváth Zsuzsa
ELTE PPK Kognitív Pszichológiai Tanszék
1064 Bp. Izabella u. 46.
horvath.zsuzsa(a)ppk.elte.hu
Tel/fax: 461-2649
Dear Dr. Qwerty,
==================================================================
*** CALL RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS ***
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* Please respond to this Call no later than March 31, 2008
NOTE: Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) is an international, interdisciplinary journal
providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in the
biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. Commentators must be BBS Associates, or suggested by a
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** Target Article Information **
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keywords below. This unedited draft has been prepared only for potential commentators who wish
to nominate themselves for formal commentary invitation. Please DO NOT write a commentary
until you receive a formal invitation. If you are invited to submit a commentary, a
copyedited, corrected version of this paper will be posted in the invitation letter. The
commentary invitation list is compiled by the Editors so as to balance proposals, areas of
expertise, and frequency of prior commentaries in BBS.
TITLE: From Numerical Concepts to Concepts of Number
AUTHORS: Lance J. Rips Amber Bloomfield, and Jennifer Asmuth
ABSTRACT: Many experiments with infants suggest that they possess quantitative abilities, and
many experimentalists believe these abilities set the stage for later mathematics: the
natural numbers and arithmetic. But the connection between these early and later skills is
far from obvious. We evaluate two possible routes to mathematics and argue that neither is
sufficient: (a) We first sketch what we think is the most likely model for infant abilities
in this domain, and we examine proposals for extrapolating the natural number concept from
these beginnings. Proposals for arriving at natural number by (empirical) induction
presuppose the mathematical concepts they seek to explain. Moreover, standard experimental
tests for childrens understanding of number terms do not necessarily tap these concepts.
(b) True concepts of number do appear, however, when children are able to understand
generalizations over all numbers, for example, the principle of additive commutativity (a + b
= b + a). Theories of how children learn such principles usually rely on a process of mapping
from physical object groupings. But both experimental results and theoretical considerations
imply that direct mapping is insufficient for acquiring these principles. We suggest instead
that children may arrive at natural numbers and arithmetic by constructing mathematical
schemas on a base of innate abilities and math principles.
KEYWORDS: mathematical concepts; acquisition of natural numbers; representations of
mathematics; theories of mathematical cognition
FULL TEXT: http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Rips-08242006/Referees/
==================================================================
*** CALL RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS ***
==================================================================
Please DO NOT respond to this email. If you wish to submit a proposal for
commentary and/or suggest potential commentators, please go to the new
Online Commentary Proposal System at the following URL:
http://www.bbsonline.org/perl/commentary/commproposal?authordir=Rips-082420…
* If you only wish to suggest potential commentators, please ignore prompts to
submit a proposal with expertise information.
* If you experience technical difficulties, please email bbs(a)bbsonline.org.
* Please respond to this Call no later than March 31, 2008
NOTE: Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) is an international, interdisciplinary journal
providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in the
biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. Commentators must be BBS Associates, or suggested by a
BBS Associate. If you are not a BBS Associate, please follow the instructions linked below:
http://www.bbsonline.org/Instructions/associnst.html
==================================================================
==================================================================
Paul Bloom - Editor
Barbara Finlay - Editor
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
bbs(a)bbsonline.org
http://www.bbsonline.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------
==================================================================
*** CALL RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS ***
==================================================================
Please DO NOT respond to this email. If you wish to submit a proposal for
commentary and/or suggest potential commentators, please go to the new
Online Commentary Proposal System at the following URL:
http://www.bbsonline.org/perl/commentary/commproposal?authordir=Rips-082420…
* If you only wish to suggest potential commentators, please ignore prompts to
submit a proposal with expertise information.
* If you experience technical difficulties, please email bbs(a)bbsonline.org.
* Please respond to this Call no later than March 31, 2008
NOTE: Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) is an international, interdisciplinary journal
providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in the
biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. Commentators must be BBS Associates, or suggested by a
BBS Associate. If you are not a BBS Associate, please follow the instructions linked below:
http://www.bbsonline.org/Instructions/associnst.html
==================================================================
** Target Article Information **
==================================================================
To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for this article, an
unedited, uncorrected target article is retrievable at the URL that follows the abstract and
keywords below. This unedited draft has been prepared only for potential commentators who wish
to nominate themselves for formal commentary invitation. Please DO NOT write a commentary
until you receive a formal invitation. If you are invited to submit a commentary, a
copyedited, corrected version of this paper will be posted in the invitation letter. The
commentary invitation list is compiled by the Editors so as to balance proposals, areas of
expertise, and frequency of prior commentaries in BBS.
TITLE: From Numerical Concepts to Concepts of Number
AUTHORS: Lance J. Rips Amber Bloomfield, and Jennifer Asmuth
ABSTRACT: Many experiments with infants suggest that they possess quantitative abilities, and
many experimentalists believe these abilities set the stage for later mathematics: the
natural numbers and arithmetic. But the connection between these early and later skills is
far from obvious. We evaluate two possible routes to mathematics and argue that neither is
sufficient: (a) We first sketch what we think is the most likely model for infant abilities
in this domain, and we examine proposals for extrapolating the natural number concept from
these beginnings. Proposals for arriving at natural number by (empirical) induction
presuppose the mathematical concepts they seek to explain. Moreover, standard experimental
tests for childrens understanding of number terms do not necessarily tap these concepts.
(b) True concepts of number do appear, however, when children are able to understand
generalizations over all numbers, for example, the principle of additive commutativity (a + b
= b + a). Theories of how children learn such principles usually rely on a process of mapping
from physical object groupings. But both experimental results and theoretical considerations
imply that direct mapping is insufficient for acquiring these principles. We suggest instead
that children may arrive at natural numbers and arithmetic by constructing mathematical
schemas on a base of innate abilities and math principles.
KEYWORDS: mathematical concepts; acquisition of natural numbers; representations of
mathematics; theories of mathematical cognition
FULL TEXT: http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Rips-08242006/Referees/Rips-08242006_pre…
==================================================================
*** CALL RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS ***
==================================================================
Please DO NOT respond to this email. If you wish to submit a proposal for
commentary and/or suggest potential commentators, please go to the new
Online Commentary Proposal System at the following URL:
http://www.bbsonline.org/perl/commentary/commproposal?authordir=Rips-082420…
* If you only wish to suggest potential commentators, please ignore prompts to
submit a proposal with expertise information.
* If you experience technical difficulties, please email bbs(a)bbsonline.org.
* Please respond to this Call no later than March 31, 2008
NOTE: Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) is an international, interdisciplinary journal
providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in the
biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. Commentators must be BBS Associates, or suggested by a
BBS Associate. If you are not a BBS Associate, please follow the instructions linked below:
http://www.bbsonline.org/Instructions/associnst.html
==================================================================
==================================================================
Paul Bloom - Editor
Barbara Finlay - Editor
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
bbs(a)bbsonline.org
http://www.bbsonline.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
by
Øystein Linnebo (University of Bristol)
on
Ontological Minimalism
Tuesday, 11 March, 4.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
A number of philosophers have been attracted to the idea that the existence of certain kinds of objects is "cheap", in the sense that very little is required for there to be objects of the kind in question. For instance, Frege and neo-Fregeans hold that nothing more is required for the existence of directions than that there be lines standing in the
relation of parallelism; mathematical structuralists hold that nothing more is required for the existence of mathematical objects than that there could be concrete realizations of certain structures; and some metaphysicians hold that nothing more is required for the existence of mereological sums than that the relevant parts exist. I examine some problems with existing forms of ontological minimalism. Then I develop what I take to be a better form of the view, based on an assimilation of objects to semantic values and a minimalist account of what is required for an expression to have a semantic value.
Kriszta Biber
Department Coordinator
Philosophy Department
Tel: 36-1-327-3806
Fax: 36-1-327-3072
E-mail: biberk(a)ceu.hu