THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY FORUM
Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös University
Address: Múzeum krt. 4/i, Budapest
24 September (Wednesday) 5:00 PM Room 226
Samuel C. Fletcher
Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine
On the Reduction of General Relativity to Newtonian Gravitation
_______________________________
Abstracts and printable program (poster) are available from the web
site of the Forum: http://phil.elte.hu/tpf (Please feel free to post
the program in your institution!)
The Forum is open to everyone, including students, visitors, and faculty
members from all departments and institutes! Format: 60 minute lecture,
coffee break, 60 minute discussion.
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
Professor of Philosophy
DEPARTMENT OF LOGIC, INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHY
EOTVOS UNIVERSITY, BUDAPEST
http://phil.elte.hu/leszabo
The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)
by
Hans-Johann Glock (Zurich)
on
`The Anthropological Difference: what makes us human?`
Tuesday, 23 September 2014, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
I start out from the question of whether there is a fundamental or categorical human-animal difference. Now, there is nothing special about being special. Every biological species differs from all the others, i.e. has some unique characteristics. But this leaves open the possibility that humans possess features that
a) set us apart ‘categorially’ or ‘essentially’ from all other animals (henceforth simply animals);
b) are fundamental, in that (all) other relevant differences derive from them;
c) are important, notably to our self-image, for instance because they assure us of a higher spiritual or moral status than animals.
(c), in particular, has invited the blanket charge of anthropocentrism, on the grounds that we set ourselves apart through human concepts rather than those of other animals. However, this accusation is uncompelling. Our concepts are tools serving our cognitive and practical needs. For this reason, they capture differences that we can capture and are interested in. To that extent, these concepts themselves are anthropocentric, but unavoidably and legitimately so. Indeed, the anthropocentrism charge itself relies on concepts—notably anthropocentrism and concept—which are indisputably the prerogative of humans, even if one grants that non-human animals can possess concepts of their own. And from the fact that our concepts are human concepts and in that sense anthropocentric, it does not follow that it is anthropocentric to insist that some of these concepts preclude application to animals.
(a) faces two fundamental objections, biological continuity and Darwinist anti-essentialism. The former is based on a misunderstanding of biological evolution. The second has invited three responses--potentiality, normality and typicality—which are inadequate to reinstate the idea of a categorical human-animal difference. If one seeks a human-animal difference of a more than statistic kind, one needs to abandon the idea of an essence possessed by all and only individual human beings. Instead, such differences are to be sought in the realm of capacities underlying specifically human societies (forms of communication and action).
There are three striking features prevalent in and presupposed by all human societies:
· a special and highly complex system of communication, namely language
· a highly complex kind of social relationships, one which involves cooperation, norms and values, division of labour and institutions.
· a special kind of plasticity: the capacity to adapt to highly diverse circumstances and environments not just intelligently through tools (technology) and rational deliberation (planning), a capacity which in turn depends on our special cognitive powers.
While some animals or animal societies may possess some of these features in more or less rudimentary form, none of them combine all three of them. And it is this combination that enables uniquely human phenomena like cumulative cultural development. To that extent, even desideratum (b) might be satisfied.
The talk will partly be based on the following two publications of mine:
“The Anthropological Difference”, in C. Sandis and M.J. Cain (eds.), Human Nature, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement: 70 (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2012), pp. 105-131.
“Mental Capacities and Animal Ethics”, in K. Petrus and M. Wild (eds.), Animal Minds and Animal Ethics (transcript, Bielefeld 2013), pp. 113-146.
Krisztina Biber
Department of Philosophy
Coordinator
------------------------------------------
Central European University
Nador u. 9. | 1051 Budapest, Hungary
Office: + 36.1.327.3806 | biberk(a)ceu.hu | www.ceu.hu
THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY FORUM
Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös University
Address: Múzeum krt. 4/i, Budapest
17 September (Wednesday) 5:00 PM Room 226
János Kelemen
Department of General Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy
Eötvös University, Budapest
Lukács György nyelv- és tudományfilozófiá(i)
(Georg Lukács's philosophy(ies) of language and science)
_______________________________
Abstracts and printable program (poster) are available from the web
site of the Forum: http://phil.elte.hu/tpf (Please feel free to post
the program in your institution!)
The Forum is open to everyone, including students, visitors, and faculty
members from all departments and institutes! Format: 60 minute lecture,
coffee break, 60 minute discussion.
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
Professor of Philosophy
DEPARTMENT OF LOGIC, INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHY
EOTVOS UNIVERSITY, BUDAPEST
http://phil.elte.hu/leszabo
Tisztelt kolléga!
Ezúton szeretnénk meghívni A PTE Nyelvtudományi tanszék szervezésében
megrendezésre kerülő könyvbemutatóra.
Legyenek kedvesek terjeszteni kollégáik, hallgatóik, valamint az érdeklődők
körében.
Megjelent Pléh Csaba és Lukács Ágnes szerkesztésében a
*Pszicholingvisztika 1-2. Magyar Pszicholingvisztkai kézikönyv*.
A könyvek mögött közel egy évtized munkája áll.
A könyv bemutatója a Pécsi Tudományegyetemen
*2014. szeptember 17-én*
délután* 16:15 órakor *lesz
a PTE BTK
*E 432-es előadójában.*
Felvezetőt tart: Schnell Zsuzsanna, a PTE Nyelvtudományi Tanszék munkatársa.
A könyvet bemutatja a szerkesztő: Prof. Dr. Pléh Csaba
Akit a könyv megvásárlása érdekel, keresse a szerkesztőt (
pleh.csaba(a)ektf.hu) kedvezményes árú példányokért (A bolti 10.000 Ft-os ár
helyett a helyszínen 6100 Ft-ért kapható).
Szervezők: Schnell Zsuzsanna (PTE BTK Nyelvtudományi Tanszék)
Szabó Veronika, Signum kutatószeminárium (PTE BTK Nyelvtudományi Tanszék)
Prof. Dr. Komlósi László (PTE BTK Angol Nyelvészeti Tanszék, BTK
Nyelvészeti Doktori Iskola)
Dr. Lábadi Beatrix (PTE BTK Pszichológia Tanszék)
A pszicholingvisztika a nyelv használatának, megértésének és
elsajátításának mentális folyamatait, a használók értelmi, érzelmi és
társas működéseit érintő mechanizmusait vizsgálja. Interdiszciplináris
terület, amelynek gyökerei a nyelvészetben és a pszichológiában lelhetők
fel. Fél évszázada létezik komolyabb formában, vagyis viszonylag fiatal, ám
az elmúlt évtizedekben – az ihletését adó területek, vagyis a nyelvészet, a
pszichológia és az idegtudomány elméleti és technikai változásainak,
továbbá a nyelv használatát és vizsgálatának lehetőségeit is érintő,
gyorsan változó műszaki-informatikai környezetnek köszönhetően – sokrétűen
fejlődött.
A *Magyar pszicholingvisztikai kézikönyv*, amely a BME Kognitív Tudományi
Tanszékén és az Eszterházy Károly Főiskola Megismerés és Kommunikáció
Kutatócsoportjában készült hiányt pótol a hazai felsőoktatásban. Magyar
kutatók régóta képviselik ezt a területet, és több szak tantervében is
szerepel a pszicholingvisztika tantárgy, kézikönyvünk az első próbálkozás
arra, hogy teljesen megfeleljen a nyelvre érvényesített interdiszciplináris
szemléletnek. Egyszerre jellemző rá a bölcsészeti, a társadalomtudományi és
a természettudományos szemlélet alkalmazása, módszerei közé tartozik a
megfigyelés, a kísérletezés, és időnként a tömeges adatok elemzése
egyaránt.
Könyvünk oktatási anyagként szolgál a felsőbb éves pszichológus, nyelvész,
gyógypedagógus, medikus diákok számára, ugyanakkor legalább egy évtizedig
érvényes összefoglaló és kiindulási irodalom lehet a kutatóknak is.
Őszintén reméljük, hogy a kézikönyv alapvető tananyag lesz nyelvészeti és
pszichológiai mesterképzésekben, doktori programokban.
------------------------------
Pécsi Tudományegyetem
Magyarország első egyeteme – 1367
Dear all,
The next talk in the CEU Cognitive Science seminar series will by given by:
Anett Ragó (Department of Cognitive Psychology, ELTE)
Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2014, 5 PM
Location: Department of Cognitive Science, Frankel Leo ut 30-04. 1023 Budapest
Room: G15
Title: Acquisition and long-term retention of the categorization rule in case of naturalistic stimuli
Categorization is a decision making process where we selectively attend to the most distinguishing features of the categories. During learning we transfer the category-specific response to all members of the category, by eliminating individual differences and focusing on similarities.
We investigated the nature of the abstraction process during which participants learned the categorization rule in a supervised category-learning paradigm. An information integration task was used with naturalistic Gestalt-like stimuli, where all the exemplars (72 different items during learning) also possessed additional idiosyncratic features.
The learning strategies, the exemplar effect, and the retention of the categorization rule were tested in behavioral experiments. Our developmental study compared 7-8 year-olds and adults, and we conducted an electrophysiological (ERP) experiment to understand the learning mechanism better.
Hit rates and reaction time results show that participants were able to learn the complex categorization rule without realizing that they have learnt it. Moreover, this general knowledge was stable a week later. Their memory for individual exemplars in the immediate test was as weak as a week later. Behavioral data was inaccurate in case of learning strategies, but the ERP components were sensitive to the changes in them. Later components didn’t, but the response and feed-back related components (ERN and FRN) indicated the changes during the three learning blocks. The differences between school children and adults showed different learning strategies as less of children than adults were able to learn the categorization rule. This implies that children are not able to inhibit the explicit strategies as successfully as adults do.
Generally, our results show that the standard category learning paradigm is extendable to more complex and naturalistic stimuli. With our method we could test the long-term retention of the learned information, and the memory for individual exemplars both in children and adults.
PLEASE NOTE: Our seminar room has a limited capacity. Please arrive early to ensure you get a seat. The talk will begin promptly at 5.
Cognitive Science Events at CEU: http://cognitivescience.ceu.hu/events
_______________________________________________
Subscribe by sending an empty mail to seminars-subscribe(a)cdc.ceu.hu
Unsubscribe by sending an empty mail to seminars-unsubscribe(a)cdc.ceu.hu
The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk
(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)
by
Hans-Johann Glock (Zurich)
on
`The Anthropological Difference: what makes us human?`
Tuesday, 23 September 2014, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
I start out from the question of whether there is a fundamental or categorical human-animal difference. Now, there is nothing special about being special. Every biological species differs from all the others, i.e. has some unique characteristics. But this leaves open the possibility that humans possess features that
a) set us apart ‘categorially’ or ‘essentially’ from all other animals (henceforth simply animals);
b) are fundamental, in that (all) other relevant differences derive from them;
c) are important, notably to our self-image, for instance because they assure us of a higher spiritual or moral status than animals.
(c), in particular, has invited the blanket charge of anthropocentrism, on the grounds that we set ourselves apart through human concepts rather than those of other animals. However, this accusation is uncompelling. Our concepts are tools serving our cognitive and practical needs. For this reason, they capture differences that we can capture and are interested in. To that extent, these concepts themselves are anthropocentric, but unavoidably and legitimately so. Indeed, the anthropocentrism charge itself relies on concepts—notably anthropocentrism and concept—which are indisputably the prerogative of humans, even if one grants that non-human animals can possess concepts of their own. And from the fact that our concepts are human concepts and in that sense anthropocentric, it does not follow that it is anthropocentric to insist that some of these concepts preclude application to animals.
(a) faces two fundamental objections, biological continuity and Darwinist anti-essentialism. The former is based on a misunderstanding of biological evolution. The second has invited three responses--potentiality, normality and typicality—which are inadequate to reinstate the idea of a categorical human-animal difference. If one seeks a human-animal difference of a more than statistic kind, one needs to abandon the idea of an essence possessed by all and only individual human beings. Instead, such differences are to be sought in the realm of capacities underlying specifically human societies (forms of communication and action).
There are three striking features prevalent in and presupposed by all human societies:
· a special and highly complex system of communication, namely language
· a highly complex kind of social relationships, one which involves cooperation, norms and values, division of labour and institutions.
· a special kind of plasticity: the capacity to adapt to highly diverse circumstances and environments not just intelligently through tools (technology) and rational deliberation (planning), a capacity which in turn depends on our special cognitive powers.
While some animals or animal societies may possess some of these features in more or less rudimentary form, none of them combine all three of them. And it is this combination that enables uniquely human phenomena like cumulative cultural development. To that extent, even desideratum (b) might be satisfied.
Krisztina Biber
Department of Philosophy
Coordinator
------------------------------------------
Central European University
Nador u. 9. | 1051 Budapest, Hungary
Office: + 36.1.327.3806 | biberk(a)ceu.hu | www.ceu.hu
Since 2005 UNILOG has been a major event in logic, dealing with all
aspects of logic and gathering researchers from all over the world such as
Michael Dunn, Hartry Field, Jaakko Hintikka, Wilfrid Hodges, Saul Kripke,
Dov Gabbay, Yuri Gurevich, Roberto Casati, David Makinson, Jan Wolenski,
Stephen Read, Krister Segerberg, Gerhard Jäger, Daniele Mundici, Vincent
Hendricks, etc.
The 1st edition was in Montreux, Switzerland (2005), the 2nd in Xi'an,
China (2007), the 3rd in Lisbon, Portugal (2010), the 4th in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil (2013). The 5th edition will happen in Istanbul, Turkey,
June 20-30, 2015.
In UNILOG'2015 there will be a school with about 30 tutorials followed by
a congress with many workshops and invited speakers.
As in previous editions there will also be a contest (The Future of Logic)
and a secret speaker (a speaker whose identity is revealed only at the
time of her/his/its talk).
The tutorials of UNILOG'2015 will provide a serious background for a
general knowledge of the logical world
They are divided into three categories:
1) History of Logic: the logic of Aristotle, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Boole,
Husserl, Frege, etc.
2) Logic and XXX: Logic and Music, Logic an Colours, Logic and Nonsense,
Logic and Information, Logic and the Theory of Relativity, Logic and
Fiction, etc
3) Theorems: Compactness theorem, Completeness theorem, Lindström theorem,
Gödel's incompleteness theorem, etc
During the congress there will be an amazing variety of workshops
- Philosophy of non-classical logics
- Representation and reality: humans, animals and machines
- Computational Creativity, Concept Invention and General Intelligence - C3GI
- Connexive Logics
- Logic and the Web
etc.
And as in previous editions there will be a book exhibition with the main
publishers:
Springer, Cambridge, Oxford, etc
Will be launched in particular the book "The Life and Work of Leon Henkin"
edited by M.Manzano, I.Sain and E.Alonso
http://www.springer.com/birkhauser/mathematics/book/978-3-319-09718-3
and the first ever Encyclopaedia of Logic
http://www.collegepublications.co.uk/eol/
Welcome to Istanbul for UNILOG'2015
5th World Congress and School on Universal Logic
http://www.uni-log.org
A good opportunity to develop your reasoning capacities!
Tisztelt kolléga!
Ezúton szeretnénk meghívni A PTE Nyelvtudományi tanszék szervezésében
megrendezésre kerülő könyvbemutatóra.
Legyenek kedvesek terjeszteni kollégáik, hallgatóik, valamint az érdeklődők
körében.
Megjelent Pléh Csaba és Lukács Ágnes szerkesztésében a
*Pszicholingvisztika 1-2. Magyar Pszicholingvisztkai kézikönyv*.
A könyvek mögött közel egy évtized munkája áll.
A könyv bemutatója a Pécsi Tudományegyetemen
*2014. szeptember 17-én*
délután* 16:15 órakor *lesz
a PTE BTK
*E 432-es előadójában.*
Felvezetőt tart: Schnell Zsuzsanna, a PTE Nyelvtudományi Tanszék munkatársa.
A könyvet bemutatja a szerkesztő: Prof. Dr. Pléh Csaba
Akit a könyv megvásárlása érdekel, keresse a szerkesztőt (
pleh.csaba(a)ektf.hu) kedvezményes árú példányokért (A bolti 10.000 Ft-os ár
helyett a helyszínen 6100 Ft-ért kapható).
Szervezők: Schnell Zsuzsanna (PTE BTK Nyelvtudományi Tanszék)
Szabó Veronika, Signum kutatószeminárium (PTE BTK Nyelvtudományi Tanszék)
Prof. Dr. Komlósi László (PTE BTK Angol Nyelvészeti Tanszék, BTK
Nyelvészeti Doktori Iskola)
Dr. Lábadi Beatrix (PTE BTK Pszichológia Tanszék)
A pszicholingvisztika a nyelv használatának, megértésének és
elsajátításának mentális folyamatait, a használók értelmi, érzelmi és
társas működéseit érintő mechanizmusait vizsgálja. Interdiszciplináris
terület, amelynek gyökerei a nyelvészetben és a pszichológiában lelhetők
fel. Fél évszázada létezik komolyabb formában, vagyis viszonylag fiatal, ám
az elmúlt évtizedekben – az ihletését adó területek, vagyis a nyelvészet, a
pszichológia és az idegtudomány elméleti és technikai változásainak,
továbbá a nyelv használatát és vizsgálatának lehetőségeit is érintő,
gyorsan változó műszaki-informatikai környezetnek köszönhetően – sokrétűen
fejlődött.
A *Magyar pszicholingvisztikai kézikönyv*, amely a BME Kognitív Tudományi
Tanszékén és az Eszterházy Károly Főiskola Megismerés és Kommunikáció
Kutatócsoportjában készült hiányt pótol a hazai felsőoktatásban. Magyar
kutatók régóta képviselik ezt a területet, és több szak tantervében is
szerepel a pszicholingvisztika tantárgy, kézikönyvünk az első próbálkozás
arra, hogy teljesen megfeleljen a nyelvre érvényesített interdiszciplináris
szemléletnek. Egyszerre jellemző rá a bölcsészeti, a társadalomtudományi és
a természettudományos szemlélet alkalmazása, módszerei közé tartozik a
megfigyelés, a kísérletezés, és időnként a tömeges adatok elemzése
egyaránt.
Könyvünk oktatási anyagként szolgál a felsőbb éves pszichológus, nyelvész,
gyógypedagógus, medikus diákok számára, ugyanakkor legalább egy évtizedig
érvényes összefoglaló és kiindulási irodalom lehet a kutatóknak is.
Őszintén reméljük, hogy a kézikönyv alapvető tananyag lesz nyelvészeti és
pszichológiai mesterképzésekben, doktori programokban.
------------------------------
Pécsi Tudományegyetem
Magyarország első egyeteme – 1367
The Relationships of Network Theory and The Psychology of Ego-centered
Network
Wednesday, October 8th, 2014, Agria Media, Eger, Hungary
Schedule
9:00 AM
Speaker 1: Zsolt Unoka
9:45 AM
Speaker 2: Anna Racz
10:15 AM
Speaker 3: Peter Kardos
10:45 AM
Coffee Break
11:00 AM
Speaker 4: Isabel Behncke Izquierdo
11:30 AM
Speaker 5: James Carney
12:00 AM
Lunch
1:00 PM
Speaker 6: Janos Kertesz
1:45 PM
Speaker 7: Tamas David-Barrett
2:15 PM
Discussion: Issues in relating macro and micro network research
3:00 PM
Coffee Break
3:15 PM
Discussion: Issues in relating macro and micro network research
4:30 PM
Closing Remarks
Schedule
9:00 - 10:45 AM Symposia Session 1. Chair: Peter Kardos
Zsolt Unoka: Personality, psychopathology and ego networks
Anna Racz: Methodological issues in assessing ego networks Peter
Kardos: The role of empathy in the ego networks
10:45 -11:00 AM Coffee Break
11:00 -12:00 AM Symposia Session 2. Chair: Zsolt Unoka
Isabel Behncke Izquierdo: Social network structure in wild bonobos: the role
of grooming, sex and play in building and maintaining relationships
James Carney: The role of counterfactual punishers in ego networks
12:00 -1:00 PM Lunch
1:00 - 2:15 PM Symposia Session 3. Chair: Csaba Pleh
Janos Kertesz: Human behavior from big data
Tamas David-Barrett: Global online and offline cross-cultural evidence for
gender differences in close friendship
2:15 - 3:00 PM Discussion: Issues in relating macro and micro
network research
- The relations of large scale and Ego-centered network research: strategic
differences and causal continuities.
3:00 - 3:15 PM Coffee Break
3:15 - 4:30 PM Discussion: Issues in relating macro and micro
network research
- The relative importance of emotional/motivational and cognitive factors in
human Ego-centered network formations.
- Continuity between human bonding and animal bonding: Animal models or
evolutionary 'jumps'
- If networks obey biological constraints, how come all the great size
variation in humans?
4:30 - 5:00 PM Closing Remarks
THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY FORUM
Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös University
Address: Múzeum krt. 4/i, Budapest
September Program
17 September (Wednesday) 5:00 PM Room 226
János Kelemen
Department of General Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy
Eötvös University, Budapest
Lukács György nyelv- és tudományfilozófiá(i)
(Georg Lukács's philosophy(ies) of language and science)
24 September (Wednesday) 5:00 PM Room 226
Samuel C. Fletcher
Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine
On the Reduction of General Relativity to Newtonian Gravitation
_______________________________
Abstracts and printable program (poster) are available from the web
site of the Forum: http://phil.elte.hu/tpf (Please feel free to post
the program in your institution!)
The Forum is open to everyone, including students, visitors, and faculty
members from all departments and institutes! Format: 60 minute lecture,
coffee break, 60 minute discussion.
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
Professor of Philosophy
DEPARTMENT OF LOGIC, INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHY
EOTVOS UNIVERSITY, BUDAPEST
http://phil.elte.hu/leszabo