Note: this is the web page for the 2008 program. For the current web page, click here.

 

Overview

 

There is a long tradition of fruitful interaction between philosophy and the sciences. Logic and statistics emerged, historically, from combined philosophical and scientific inquiry into the nature of mathematical and scientific inference; and the modern conceptions of psychology, linguistics, and computer science are the results of sustained reflection on the nature of mind, language, and computation. In today's climate of disciplinary specialization, however, foundational reflection is becoming increasingly rare. As a result, developments in the sciences are often conceptually ill-founded, and philosophical debates often lack scientific substance.

 

In 2008, the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University will hold a three-week summer school in logic and formal epistemology for promising undergraduates in philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and other sciences. The goals are to

  • introduce promising students to cross-disciplinary fields of research at an early stage in their career; and

  • forge lasting links between the various disciplines.

The summer school will be held from Monday, June 9 to Friday, June 27, 2008. There will be morning and afternoon lectures and daily problem sessions, as well as planned outings and social events.

 

The summer school is free. That is, we will provide:

  • full tuition

  • dormitory accommodations on the Carnegie Mellon campus

So students need only pay for round trip travel to Pittsburgh and living expenses while here. There are no grades, and the courses do not provide formal course credit.

 

Note: in 2006 and 2007, the summer school received substantial support from the National Science Foundation. This year we do not have NSF support, and so we cannot accept as many students as we have in the past.

Applications are due by March 15, 2008.

 

Please help us spread the word. There is a flyer that is suitable for distributing, framing, or hanging on an office door, and a plain-text announcement.

 

Topics

 

This year's topics are:

 

Causal and Statistical Inference

Monday, June 9 to Friday, June 13

Instructor: David Danks

 

As forcefully argued by Hume, causal learning poses a distinctive epistemological problem: how do we determine what factors causally influence other factors given that we only observe sequences of events? The problem of causal inference, particularly from statistical data, is a central methodological challenge within most of the sciences. Over the past twenty years, philosophers, statisticians, and computer scientists have developed a formalism -- causal Bayes nets -- for representing causal structures and solving problems of causal and statistical inference. In this component of the summer school, we will introduce this formalism, and explore how it can be used to solve various philosophical problems of causal and statistical inference, as well as various scientific problems.

 

 

 

 

 

Semantics and Discourse Representation

Monday, June 16 to Friday, June 20

Instructor: Mandy Simons

 

Formal approaches to the analysis of linguistic meaning have traditionally taken the sentence to be the basic unit of analysis. In the 1980's, semantic work on cross-sentential anaphora and binding led to the development of a very different approach which has come to be known as dynamic semantics. Dynamic semantic frameworks differ from traditional formalisms for the representation of linguistic meaning in two central ways: First, they allow for the representation of semantic relations between sentences in a discourse; second, they represent the meaning of a sentence as an update function on an existing context, rather than as a set of truth conditions. In this component of the summer school, we will introduce Discourse Representation Theory, and explore the treatment of a variety of semantic phenomena within this framework.

 

 

 

 

 

Logic and Formal Verification

Monday, June 23 to Friday, June 27

Instructor: Jeremy Avigad

 

Since the early twentieth century, it has been understood that mathematical arguments can be represented in formal axiomatic theories, at least in principle. Until recently, however, spelling out the basic logical inferences underlying even elementary mathematical arguments was too difficult to carry out in practice. With the advent of computational "proof assistants" the situation has changed, and such systems are now being used to verify the both the correctness of mathematical proofs and the correctness of hardware and software design. In this component of the summer school, we will consider some of the logical and computational mechanisms that have been developed to support these efforts, and experiment with the Isabelle proof assistant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to apply

 

The summer school is open to undergraduates, as well as to students who will have just received their undergraduate degrees. We regret that we cannot extend the invitation to student beyond their first year of graduate school. Applicants need not be US citizens. There is a $20 nonrefundable application fee.

  • All application materials need to be received the Philosophy Department by March 15, 2008.

  • By March 31, 2008, applicants will be informed of the admissions decisions and of other details relating to the Summer School.

  • Applicants who are admitted will be asked to confirm their planned attendance by April 15, 2008.

To apply:

  • Fill out the online application form.

  • Send us a transcript from your current academic institution. Transcripts in electronic format (such as PDF) may be sent by e-mail to the address below.

  • Have someone who can comment on your academic abilities write a letter of recommendation. The letter may be short and informal, and may be sent by e-mail to the address below.

  • Pay the $20 application fee, preferrably using our online payment form. Alternatively, you may send a check or an international money order to the address below. Checks should be made payable to "Carnegie Mellon University."

Materials may be sent by e-mail to

phil-summerschool@andrew.cmu.edu

or by mail to

Summer School in Logic and Formal Epistemology
Department of Philosophy
Baker Hall 135
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

Additional information

 

The summer school was launched in 2006 with funding from the National Science Foundation. You may also view:

Inquiries may be directed to Jeremy Avigad (avigad@cmu.edu).