Program

Monday, 22 July

15:00 - 15:45	Welcome
15:45 - 16:00	Information session on the Master’s program
16:00 - 17:00	Introductions
18:00	Evening Lecture by Barbar Vetter: First-generation philosophers: why they matter, and how to support them

Tuesday, 23 July

10:00 - 11:00	Lecture I.1
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee Break
11:30 - 12:30	Lecture I.2
12:30 - 14:00	Lunch break
14:00 - 14:50	Exercise/Discussion I.1
15:00 - 17:00	Fellow's Talks

 Wednesday, 24 July

10:00 - 11:00	Lecture I.3
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee Break
11:30 - 12:30	Lecture I.4
12:30 - 14:00	Lunch break
14:00 - 14:50	Exercise/Discussion I.2
15:00 - 17:00	Posters

Thursday, 25 July

10:00 - 11:00	Lecture II.1
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee Break
11:30 - 12:30	Lecture II.2
12:30 - 14:30	Lunch break
	Free Afternoon

Friday, 26 July

10:00 - 11:00	Lecture II.3
11:00 - 11:30	Coffee Break
12:00 - 12:30	Lecture II.4
12:30 - 14:00	Lunch break
12:20 - 14:00	Excercise/Discussion II.2
15:00 - 17:00	Posters

Barbara Vetter: First-generation philosophers: why they matter, and how to support them

Abstract: Academia holds many obstacles to those who are the first in their family to go to university, especially when they come from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Yet it is crucial for philosophy to be inclusive of first-generation students - not only for the obvious reasons of justice, but also for its own sake, to avoid losing or ignoring important perspectives. But to succeed in being inclusive, we must better understand the nature of the obstacles that first-generation philosophers are facing, and potential measures that may help overcome or remove those obstacles. In this talk, I will point out some philosophical debates where inclusion matters, and discuss the situation of first-generation philosophers within Germany at present, as well as some projects that aim to better support them.

Sara Uckelman: Why We Should Do Historical Logic: What the History of Logic Can Teach Us About the Future of Logic

Abstract: The goal of this course is to demonstrate how research into historical logic can feed into contemporary logic research by providing students with the formal tools they need to understand texts and developments in the history of logic, with the aim of understanding, further, how the history of logic can teach us about the future of logic.

This course will start from a tension in present-day state of logic, a field which is ever expanding and becoming more inclusive and yet which still presents systemic barriers of access to certain groups of people. As logicians we think there is value in the study and practice of logic, so patterns of exclusion should concern us. These patterns of exclusion do not exist in a vacuum, but are rooted in historical events and developments, which means that if we wish to understand where these exclusionary structures come form and how we can get rid of them, we must understand the history of our field.

This is not a history of logic seminar, but rather a seminar on how to use tools of modern formal logic to understand developments in historical logic and the history of logic. In this class we will cover these main topics: (1) Why does it matter that the field of logic is often exclusionary? What are the ways in which it is exclusionary, and could be made more inclusive? (2) How does the history of logic help us understand the future of logic? And who are the ones who should be doing this history? (3) Historical logic in different eras and contexts: ancient Greece; medieval Europe; medieval India; the 19th century. Throughout the four lectures, we will identify, discuss, and use tools of contemporary logic -- modal (temporal, epistemic, dynamic) logic, multi-agent systems; and other non-classical (paraconsistent, relevant, connexive, substructural) logics. These lectures will be supplemented by philosophical, historical, and logical exercises and opportunities for discussion.

Jingyi Wu: Computational Models of Diversity and Inequity

How do social identities and social injustice impact the production of knowledge in a group? Is social and cognitive diversity beneficial in group learning? If so, in what ways? These are long-standing questions that interest feminist epistemologists, philosophers of science, and social scientists. In this course, we will focus on some recent methodological developments in answering those questions. We will look at a range of philosophical work that use computational agent-based models (ABM) to explore social dynamics, paying special attention to the possible causes and consequences of diversity and inequity.

At the core of those models is a simple idea that social phenomena evolve over time, as a result of agents’ individual behaviours and patterns of interaction with others in the community. If we are interested in what happens if one social group devalues evidence from another social group, for instance, then we can construct simulation models to explore how this discriminatory treatment may evolve to impact the epistemic lives of the community over time.

Over a series of lectures, we will dissect individual components of an ABM, and look at a range of examples to understand how different components of a model come together to solve philosophically and socially relevant questions. We will also explore the trade-offs involved in constructing a model. At the end of the course, students will have the opportunity to sketch the dynamics of an original model in a group.

Topics may include: epistemic injustice, gender and racial credit gaps, gender and racial belief gaps, collaboration inequity in science, mechanisms of diversity of practice in science.

No prior knowledge of coding is required or expected.